maron Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 Banks caused me to go to Credit Unions. I will not go to Subway anymore but ATT takes the cake even for me.. What is the company you think that just rapes people? I knew they were throttling me.... Unlimited plan my ass http://www.technewsworld.com/story/81275.html?google_editors_picks=true [h=1]'Unlimited'[/h] [TABLE] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD] Instead of renaming its "unlimited" data plan something more accurate, AT&T just decided to start throttling its unlimited customers. In its defense, it claimed it informed them of the change through bill notices, a press release and text messages. That wasn't good enough, according to the FTC, which is suing for "substantial monetary relief" -- and a better plan description. [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Print Email By John P. Mello Jr. • E-Commerce Times • ECT News Network 10/29/14 3:15 PM PT The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday filed a complaint in a California federal court against AT&T, seeking compensation for customers who were told they had unlimited data plans but in reality did not. The legal action stemmed from a practice AT&T began in 2011 of throttling data delivery to customers with unlimited data plans when their data usage reached a specified amount during a billing period. At times, data speeds were choked when users had consumed as little as 2 gigabytes of data, the FTC complaint states. The throttling program has been severe, often resulting in speed reductions of 80-90 percent for affected users. Since the program's inception, AT&T has throttled at least 3.5 million unique customers a total of more than 25 million times, according to the FTC. "We're trying to get them to stop promising unlimited data without accurately describing it to their customers," Matthew Gold, the FTC attorney who filed the complaint, told the E-Commerce Times. That's not all the FTC is trying to do with its legal action. "We are also seeking substantial monetary relief against the company, which would be in the form of redress to consumers who have been throttled," Gold explained. [h=2]Plenty of Notice[/h] AT&T has been open with its customers about the limits on its unlimited data plans, the company insisted. "We have been completely transparent with customers since the very beginning," AT&T Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel Wayne Watts told the E-Commerce Times. "We informed all unlimited data plan customers via bill notices and a national press release that resulted in nearly 2,000 news stories, well before the program was implemented," he said. "In addition, this program has affected only about 3 percent of our customers, and before any customer is affected, they are also notified by text message," Watts maintained. "We don't agree that they disclosed it adequately to their customers. This program dates back to a time when customers were renewing contracts to acquire new cellphones," said the FTC's Gold. "That was the time when AT&T should have disclosed it to consumers. They could have done so very easily. They chose not to do so." [h=2]Mushy Terminology[/h] One customer who denied that he received adequate warning about AT&T's throttling practices is Bob Egan, CEO and founder of the Sepharim Group. "I got so frustrated with my unlimited plan that I wound up moving to one of the other plans. I moved off unlimited because it was costing me too much money, and it was frustrating," he told the E-Commerce Times. "This lawsuit could result in a kind of truth-of-lending law in the telcom area," Egan remarked. "We have had very stern laws about interest rates in the banking sector for a long time, but regulators haven't put any weight behind truth and disclosure by telco companies." Much of the confusion about mobile plans can be traced to slippery terminology. "There isn't even an industry insider who can reliably say that a particular term means a particular thing and is delivered in a particular way, because it's so inconsistent across all of the operators," Egan said. "It's kind of like a 'Who's On First' scenario. I think the FTC is saying, 'Enough is enough,' and if you say 'unlimited,' it needs to be 'unlimited,'" he suggested. "I think the telco industry is ripe for the trade commission to take this on and straighten this out on behalf of consumers." [h=2]Fine Print[/h] Inconsistent terminology isn't the only practice by wireless carriers that's confusing consumers. The agreements themselves can be hard to understand. "What this boils down to," ventured independent mobility analyst Michael Morgan, "is how clear are these operators being in presenting these plans to consumers? I spend about 100 hours each quarter going through all the fine print in all the new plans just to know all the details in them. Most consumers are not going to do that." While the FTC action could have good consequences for consumers, it could have other impacts, as well. "Hopefully, this isn't about heavily penalizing one player when we've seen one version of this from all players," Morgan told the E-Commerce Times. Since throttling has been going on for some time, the FTC appears to be getting into the game late on consumers' behalfs. "The FTC is three, four years behind the ball on this," Morgan observed, "but they're getting to it -- even if the result may just be an extra sub-bullet on a marketing message: Speed throttled." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingRevolver Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 T-mobile is shit. Horrible customer service. USBank is equally as bad. I had to deal with them a few days ago and they transferred me to different departments about seven times (no joke) and I wound up back where I first started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickadee Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 Bell Canada is the worst company I have ever dealt with. From installation, programming, billing, retention I have been unfortunate enough to deal with them and they are simply incompetent at every level of their organization. They would have been out of business long ago if not for the fucked up state of the telecom industry in canada. if i had been in the same room some their indian cs reps I would have rammed a pen into the back of their skull through their collective eye sockets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WVU Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 AT&T is tops but a close second is direct tv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maron Posted October 31, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 The telecommunications companies see how integral or addicted the next generation is with their mobile devices and think they can do just about anything. It appears that they can...could you have imagined the day when tv/entertainment for your home would be over $100 a month easy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StayGolden Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 1. Walmart 1a. Any company putting hydrogenated oils in their products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuonzo Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 directtv - worst customer service EVER jack in the box - got trapped in drive through today was no lane to go around after waiting 15 minutes..was so pissed , was already running late in someone elses car and they needed it to go to work. i swear to god ill never go there again- thatll learn em! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milwaukee mike Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 The telecommunications companies see how integral or addicted the next generation is with their mobile devices and think they can do just about anything. It appears that they can...could you have imagined the day when tv/entertainment for your home would be over $100 a month easy... so true if you add up my cable/internet/phones/cell phones for both home and office i'm paying over $1000/month for air Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNVOLFAN Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 COMCAST SUX!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeybagadonuts Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 Yup, Comcast is far and away the biggest piece of whoreshit company on earth. ATT and T-mobile are both pretty bad, but I'd rather deal with either 10 times than deal with comcast once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maron Posted October 31, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 Yup, Comcast is far and away the biggest piece of whoreshit company on earth. ATT and T-mobile are both pretty bad, but I'd rather deal with either 10 times than deal with comcast once. Comcast had a deal where you switched and you get a pre paid visa...never got it..hounded them about it...still said basically [ATTACH=CONFIG]n32611[/ATTACH] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fecal Tornado Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 ALL good But Western Union BLOWS cant send money no more so, I listened to where I was gonna send it(started at 10 AM)"Just use another name they will never know) HA used a name ----AFTER 5 tries with with calling every time from the place where you send it from 2 hours later I let it go(no one speaks or understands english on there) Go home and email them the MTCN #, they email me back in 10 minutes and tell me the name is wrong!!!!! They tell me they cant do nothing unless they can call the number I put down.WTFWTFWTF don't know what to do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDTrains Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 1. Chase They tried to foreclose on me after requesting a copy of my property tax payment back in 2008. I faxed a copy to them but they proceeded with foreclosure anyway and 1 year later they finally stopped proceedings after I went to the local NBC affiliate and they threatened to go public with my story. 2. Walmart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrigley Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 comcast biggest ripoff artists around raise rates every year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brutus Buckeye Posted November 1, 2014 Report Share Posted November 1, 2014 I have to agree with those saying DirectTV. I've had nothing but bad experiences over the years. If Dish had a better channel lineup I'd switch in a second. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viejo Dinosaur Posted November 2, 2014 Report Share Posted November 2, 2014 Phifer(spelling)? Pharmacy drug lords.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryRunSome Posted November 2, 2014 Report Share Posted November 2, 2014 DirectTv. CS is horrific Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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