AT&T: Strictly for losers

[Renew Deal]

Shoddy customer service. Poor network coverage. Brain-dead marketing. What's next for AT&T? How about bandwidth caps and metered data plans for iPhone users?

On the heels of AT&T's disastrous attempts to fight back against Verizon's clever "there's a map for that" ad campaign (Luke Wilson? Is that all you got?) comes more bad news for those who've hitched their smartphones to Ma Bell's wagon.

In a speech to a tech conference this week, AT&T suit Ralph de la Vega hinted that his employer is considering plans to bring home more bacon by slaughtering its data hogs -- making its wireless subscribers (i.e., iPhone owners) pay by the megabyte or live with bandwidth caps.

Per Matt Hamblen, de la Vega said:
"The first thing we need to do is educate customers about what represents a megabyte of data and...we're improving systems to give them real-time information about their data usage. Longer term, there's got to be some sort of pricing scheme that addresses the users.... We are going to make sure incentives are in place to reduce or modify uses so they don't crowd out others in the same cell sites."

So, to recap: The only reason to pick AT&T as your wireless provider is the iPhone. In virtually every consumer survey, it lands at the bottom of the heap. It already charges an arm, a leg, and other vital bodily parts for a mandatory "unlimited" data plan. Now it wants to charge by the megabyte and/or put in bandwidth caps.

Why is the world's largest telecom being such a total asshat? Apparently it's doing everything it can to win the Worst Company Ever award.
<snip>

Meanwhile, things over in Ma Bell's landline division don't appear to be much better. AT&T is running a "Help Yourself and Win" sweepstakes that's not doing it any good in the PR department. Participants vie for Four Grand Prizes -- a gift card worth $2,500 for buying a computer from Apple, Dell, HP, Sony, or Best Buy -- plus another $8,000 worth of Amazon and Starbucks gift cards for 180 runners-up. Sounds good, right?
<snip>

I don't know what you walk away with from this, but here's what I get: AT&T landlines are noisy and trouble prone, and they have problems accepting incoming calls. Also, AT&T would much rather shunt you off to a Web page than deal with you directly, and it thinks you are a complete and utter boob.

Nice.

It gets worse. Cringester A. H. swears he saw the words "You're a Loser" flash across his screen seconds before the official "Sorry; you're not an instant winner today" graphic displays. Sure enough, perusing that image's properties shows the alternate text that will appear if your browser can't display it: "You're a Loser."

I am not at all surprised. When you treat your customers with this much contempt, you can't think of them as anything but losers. I don't see how Apple can continue its exclusive relationship with AT&T for much longer. It's becoming an embarrassment.

Are AT&T's customers chumps? Is the iPhone truly worth it? Weigh in below or dial me direct: [e-mail]. Operators are standing by.


http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/att-strictly-losers-808

[ixion]

1. Yes, AT&T both sucks and blows, and it is one of the primary reasons why I don't have an iPhone

because I will never, and I mean never, use their "service" ever again.

Fool me once, and all that.

[girl gone mad]

11. I jailbroke my iphone..

because I refuse to use AT&T.

[robinlynne]

2. unofortunately, where I live, it is the cheapest by far. can't get verizon where

there is AT&T. looks like they split up the areas, monopoly style. dont have an iphone at all. nor do I like the company. It's just a matter of price.

[MercutioATC]

3. I've never had a problem with AT&T.

My coverage is good, the network is fast, they're cheaper than competing services, and my iPhone has been great.

Neither AT&T nor ANY cell provider has the infrastructure to deal with the popularity of smartphones. While I'd hate to be capped or pay by the MB, EVERY provider has this problem.

AT&T is no worse than the rest and, for me, provides great service at a better price than I can get from anybody else.

[Frances]

6. AT&T is better than Comcast where I live

[tonysam]

10. +1 n/t

[BREMPRO]

14. neither have I

i live in a rural area of Maine and couldn't get a signal at all from Verizon and their customer service sucked. I've had mostly positive experiences with AT&T wireless.

The data issue will hit any carrier that has smart phones-At&T is just first because they have more than any other carrier. I read somewhere 3% of users are using 30% of the total bandwidth. Expanding bandwidth is likely in the works, but in the mean time they have to do something to keep the network from being overwhelmed.

[Snazzy]

4. failed the stuck in the subway test yesterday

Just the sort of thing I like to have a cell for--emergencies or foul ups that mess up my schedule. Verizon and T-mobile were fine. (metro north under NYC somewhere). I got on them not for iphone but a nice Sony Ericson I really like. It has multiple networks, a no go (and ATT turns off your ability to manually switch, a phone feature that also boosts battery time). Dead spots in various office building, Long Island, long list. The data rate is a rip off too.

[calico1]

5. I don't have any issues with AT&T. In my area

Verizon is more expensive. I travel to Puerto Rico to visit family and call to my home in CT and have never had any problem.

All of the providers have some problem or another.

You never know who might be using AT&T so I wouldn't make a generalization about "losers." It takes a lot more in my opinion to make a person a loser than just the phone company they choose. Geez....

[Dr.Phool]

7. If you don't need an i-phone, there's a cheaper alternative.

Unfortunately, you have to do business with Walmart to get it.

They just launched a new service, using the Verizon network, so you have the best coverage in the country. It's called Straight Talk. It's a joint venture between Walmart and Tracfone. You have a choice of some decent phones for what you need, but no Blackberries, etc. I'd check to see if you could get an unlocked one from CompUSA.com to see if it would work. They do offer reasonably priced LG's, Samsungs, and Razr's.

There's no contract, and for $30 per month you get 1000 minutes talk, 1000 texts, and 30 MB data per month. For $45, you get unlimited everything.

I never walk in to a Walmart, but I did for this deal to get a phone for my 80 year old Dad. He lives out in the boonies in South Carolina, and it works fine.

[Harry Monroe]

8. And also strictly for people stuck in a contract that has 8 more months to run

Then I'm switching to Verizon!!

[DemReadingDU]

9. I still have AT&T for my land-line, n/t

[AwakeAtLast]

12. Loving my Droid even more right now

In my area, Verizon has been pretty good

[jotsy]

13. AT&T has billed me through Qwest monthly for seven years for a service I am blocked from using.

Both companies scoff at the notion that any of what I've paid should be returned, each insisting my grievance is with the other.

Unfortunately, it seems the worse a company treats its customer base, the more the rest of its corporate cronies envy and emulate instead of admonish.

I've been taught to believe that those who wrongfully take from others are the losers. Don't know who taught these folks what but the toxicity of it all doesn't say much for our moment in time. The embarrassing era of elitists who make a world of means without regard for merit.

[bhikkhu]

17. I remember that from when I had a land line

We didn't qualify for long distance service without a big deposit, but we were only allowed to have a local line if we paid extra every month to "block" long distance calling.

It was pretty nice when we finally were able to just turn the phone off and go cellular. Though those guys screw you worse - its been nice again to turn off the cell phones and just use Skype.

[Stevenmarc]

15. Yada Yada Yada..... Yawn

I have an iPhone and quite frankly only 15% of my time using it is for actually making a phone call the rest of the time I'm using one of the 100,000+ apps most of them are not using any bandwidth at all and most of the time I'm in a location that I have wifi access so I'm not using all that much 3g network bandwidth either. So to answer the question are ATT customers chumps, no and is the iphone worth it, yes.

[bhikkhu]

16. I'm cell phone free now, and doing fine

its another one of those things you just get used to and never notice that its sucking the life out of you...for a long time it was always trying not to use the phone too much, because it was expensive to go over on minutes. After my daughter went 700 minutes over in a few unsupervised calls, we suddenly had a $300 debt. I had to pay extra for a restricted service that allowed placing a limit on minutes and texts and then try to come up with a payment plan, which I was unable to in our current financial situation. The stupid thing is that just about everyone I know has had similar problems and big unexpected bills.

So no more cell phone. We have to pay out the contract, but we're too far behind to get the service back on in the meantime. Having internet service, I just use Skype now for $3 a month, with unlimited calling in the US, and use the free ring2skype relay for a dial-in number.