How interesting. I’m an IT Director and even I know reengaging an exceptionally dissatisfied customer who said their peace and walked away is a mistake. All you’re doing is raising their ire and filling them with purpose.
So, I have some questions:
If ATT doesn’t have the ability to cap data usage then why does ATT have the ability to cap data usage if you pay extra for Smart Limits?
That doesn’t make much sense.
Since ATT apparently doesn’t have any control over the ground floor of its business, I’m guessing the money customers pay for Smart Limits is given to a 3rd party contractor who has a warehouse of minimum wage employees just sitting around and manually pulling the plug on data when a phone number reaches its Smart Limit?
Then why don’t customers have to pay to receive the SMS warnings about getting close to our data limits? I assume it’s the same contractor who has a different warehouse of employees sending out the messages. How could THAT be free? It’s a lot more work than capping a data line.
Because if you can’t gauge when a line has reached its data limit and cap it you certainly can’t detect when it’s reaching its data threshold and send a SMS warning. Or – for that matter – send a post-overage-charge notification SMS.
Which begets the question of who’s posting the charge to the account? Is that also a manual process?
A couple months ago I took my account off auto pay and skipped a payment. Just to see what would happen. Sure enough: I lost my network connection. Was it that same contractor who shut my phone off?
Or are these processes automated? They are if you have ONE competent employee in the chain of command. And ATT has a ton of more-than-competent employees so, I’m guessing there’s a bunch of automation going on in the back of house.
Let’s reign in the blarney you were spewing a bit: does ATT not have a law department? Most of the country’s best attorneys are Corporate Counsel. When ATT went into the cell business there had to be attorneys involved from the top to the bottom of that business expansion.
Had there been no ability to cap data, an ATT attorney said something like this: “Hold on a sec. If I’m reading this correctly, we’re going to be selling a service that we can’t deliver in full. I don’t think that’s going to go over well with the FTC, FCC or various States Attorney Generals.“
It’s odd that person wasn’t listened to….because, in the end, you’re likely going to be sued over it.
But, laughably assuming ATT launched its cell business without the ability to automatically cap data we move onto this:
There’s someone at ATT who has a title like “Director of Cellular Data Operations.” That person has a phone number for whatever company provides ATT’s physical data-oriented infrastructure…let’s say, Cisco, and that phone number goes directly to – not customer service but, a director or manager in engineering. This is the number that gets called a month or two after ATT launches their cellular operations and realizes it “can’t cap data” and the call goes like this:
“ “
Just kidding. That call never happened because a switch company that’s not going out of business tomorrow would have an API or other such interface for capping built into their switches. And a phone company that’s not going out of business tomorrow would have double-checked that capability during the RFP process.
Data capping is a core competence of both companies. But, if you’re still having trouble figuring it out, I know a Bed and Breakfast Inn on Orcas Island that has data-capping on its WiFi system.
I can give you their number for a small finders fee. They might be able to help you all figure this problem out…
A work-a-round that keeps being brought to my attention is the suggestion to use the data-management capabilities of the smart phone I purchased…...
Honestly, that’s just an insult. I was insulted when it was said to me and I’ve been insulted every time I’ve seen it in writing. Firstly, ATT won’t be bound by those programs and the handset manufacturers won’t attest to their results. Secondly, I don’t recall a rep from Samsung signing onto the contract between ATT and myself so, why are we suddenly talking about 3rd party hardware providers? Do they have access to ATTs data network? No? Are they going to be able to stop my data access once I’ve used all the data bandwidth I’ve paid for? No? Then stop wasting my time with solutions to problems that aren’t solutions and have nothing to do with our business relationship.
Fraud is fraud. It doesn’t have to be nefarious or conspiratorial: it can be negligent. Obviously, “negligent” isn’t the basis for the fraud being committed here. The way this situation is playing out is exactly how one would expect when dealing with a marginally honest company.
It’s actually a brilliant – but old – scam. When the FTC is no longer able to come up with excuses as to why it’s not doing its job, ATT and other carriers that scam this way will be [Edited to comply with Guidelines] No one will go to jail – and it’s unlikely anyone will lose their job over this brazen fleecing of customers. ATT will pay a small fine and then settle a [Edited to comply with Guidelines] for pennies on the dollar: in the end ATT keeps the lions share of profit from these ill-gotten gains
[Edited to comply with Guidelines]
I know. I know. “These allegations are false and will be vigorously contested”…….Whatever.
The recent KitKat update marks yet another fraud ATT should be ATT continued to sell “premium” Android handsets touting external storage capabilities while knowing the pending KitKat update was going to make that storage inaccessible to the user. I, myself, wasted $200 on a G4 I wouldn’t have even considered buying were it not for the external SD slot. A slot I can no longer use – now that ATT forced KitKat on my phone against my wishes.
Facts are facts: ATT is committing fraud here and customers aren’t stupid. We can all see it. Stop feigning pseudo-outrage about it. It only makes the situation worse.
Now that you’ve ticked me off again, I’ve got to go waste time at various Android forums, reminding people to file FTC complaints over the loss of their external storage capabilities (which ‘Lollipop’ allegedly addresses).
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Re: Capping and stopping data usage once I reach my limit of 1gb without extending my data cap.
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