AT&T to throttle unlimited data plan users... [ Edited ]

[jwissick]

I have been a loyal AT&T cusstomer through the all the bad times. When they screwed up over the iPhone MMS (due in summer they said), the dropped call, the {word filter evasion} poor coverage, etc for 10 years. This is NOT how you treat a customer that you want to keep. They go out pushing the smart phones then get all ticked off when people actually use them! They may claim that only the top 5% of users are the problem, but I disagee. The problem is that AT&T has been too slow to increase capacity at their towers! I also disagree with thier data measuring techniques. My phone says I have used 3.1 gb in the last SIX months! According to the AT&T data tracker, I have used 2gb in this month. How can those two be so far off? They sold me the phone and it can't track it's data usage correctly? I think not. Something stinks here.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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Doc123 wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm fine just got promoted and AT&T treats me well. They work with my school schedule and are great to work for.

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Oh wow... I'm sitting here arguing with a student...

Evertime you download something or sign up to a forum like this, there is a long drop down menu. They could put ANYTHING on there... you owe us ONE TRILLION DOLLARS for every post containing the word: and

Certainly certain contracts are more important to go through and read than others. But there are many times I've been on the Internet where I'm downloading a program and I don't have the time or luxury to sit there and see if all the i's have been dotted and t's have been crossed. Anyone can be burned by a contract...  it's impossible to think about every possible future situation and how they might burn you.

It's amazing your take on this... if people like all of you didn't read your contract, you wouldn't be sitting here complaining about something that's your fault. Ummm... hello... at&t throttled people's services to 1% of what they were getting. These same people, that are suppose to have the more sought after program (the coveted unlimited plan) are getting throttled BEFORE people with a lesser plan (UNLIMITED > 3 GB).

Maybe that's what you haven't learned in school yet... the greater/less than sign.

[Please keep it courteous]

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what does it matter if they are are student or not? Ever hear of the concept of advanced degrees and schooling past the 12th grade? Ever consider how many years it takes to obtain a PHD, a average median of 11 years - that is if you can dedicate those 11 years to nothing but school - they are called professional students, but people in the real world tend to work around their real life scehdule with family and employment. Like him I still attend classes in the evening and online - andf I have been out of high school for decades, contrary to popular belief - you should never stop learning, if you do, just give up.

I love your analog - although it is a way of the top for a logical argument to be held on it

 "Evertime you download something or sign up to a forum like this, there is a long drop down menu. They could put ANYTHING on there... you owe us ONE TRILLION DOLLARS for every post containing the word: and"

by that as it may, it is a ridicuolus comparions but the theory, results and outcome are the same. If you actaully agreed to the contract without reading it and is was written correctly to make it binding - then yes you do owe it, if someone is naive enough not to read a binding agreement without reading it then they deserver eveerything that they get when they realize exactly what they signed.

There are professions out there that make a huge salary by making sure the agreements are worded correctly to be binding and defending those agreement in official locations.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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Dellman87 wrote:

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aristizzle wrote:

Can you please provide me your source on the Verizon customer agreement that they throttle only on congested towers?

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Unfortunately it was word of mouth at the Verizon store. According to this person, who I will keep their name private, only 3G cdma customers will see a throttle when / if towers are congested. LTE customers are unaffected.

I think AT&T should "re-think possible" on their LTE network and allow true unlimited data on their LTE towers, and for 3G / HSPA+ towers, only throttle users when towers are congested, not at 2GB and for the rest of the biling cycle.

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you believe a tier 1 sales rep that has no idea what the actual corporate policy enforcement is? Really dounbt that there are many of those that are privilged to information like that, so it remains a "word of mouth or better know as a rumor.

You are right - they should "re-think possible" and sunset the current unlimited plans

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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Captain Quantum wrote:

^I agree, but be aware virgin does throttle @2.5 gb. Still a good option though. 

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Isn't that an ironic statement - considering the tier 3 carrier that owns Vigin lock stock and barrel - Sprint, seems like a glimpse into the future for what is going to happen to Sprint customers if the virgin throttle works out

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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throttled wrote:

Someone made a great point earlier, and I'd like to bring it up again.

aristizzle, you see nothing wrong with at&t throttling speed to the slowest trickle possible to irk customers into leaving their highly sought "unlimited" plans.

What if at&t also throttled phone calls, and limited them to 30 seconds and then had the tower automatically dump you? Would that type of tactic also be fair? They could argue the same point you seem to be beating... Hey everyone... it's UNLIMITED... we never said what kind of speed you were going to get... and we never said it was going to be continuous. You can call back and have as many 30 second calls as you want!

Whoever posted that.. that was a great point. And I'd love to hear a response... but we know you're not good at answering tough questions, so just ignore that one too.

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what - "highly sought "unlimited" plans" are you talking about, do you have some insite into "unlimited plans" that the carrier is offering under the table?

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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thepaulses wrote:

I have stopped paying attention to the employees. especially the ones that are here to tell you to "this is the way it is and if you don't think its right, you are wrong"

Nearly 50% of AT&T cellphone users have unlimited data plans. That is a large number. The very fact that there so many unhappy customers that post here should tell you something is very wrong with the way AT&T is consucting itself.

Let your voice be heard. I wonder how much they have to pay the representatives per hour to deal with unhappy customers. Especially when it goes to "managers".

I refuse to speak with "specialty department"

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Do you have some documentation on this statement that can be validated?

"Nearly 50% of AT&T cellphone users have unlimited data plans"

The cs reps get paid if they are not answering the phone or answering the phone, the only inconvience this issue is causing is it makes hold time longer for those that have actualy issues, they need to start routing the calls complaining about throttling to a different hold queue rather then the generic support queue

or are you basiing you percentage on a guess?

[throttled]

throttled wrote:

Someone made a great point earlier, and I'd like to bring it up again.

aristizzle, you see nothing wrong with at&t throttling speed to the slowest trickle possible to irk customers into leaving their highly sought "unlimited" plans.

What if at&t also throttled phone calls, and limited them to 30 seconds and then had the tower automatically dump you? Would that type of tactic also be fair? They could argue the same point you seem to be beating... Hey everyone... it's UNLIMITED... we never said what kind of speed you were going to get... and we never said it was going to be continuous. You can call back and have as many 30 second calls as you want!

Whoever posted that.. that was a great point. And I'd love to hear a response... but we know you're not good at answering tough questions, so just ignore that one too.

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wingrider01 wrote: what - "highly sought "unlimited" plans" are you talking about, do you have some insite into "unlimited plans" that the carrier is offering under the table?

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Don't play stupid with me. When att&t and Verizon were ending the limited plans, everyone was running around saying, hey, you better get in on the unlimited plans now. Getting the unlimited plan was suppose to be a way to get something and save money... I don't think it's any secret. It's the same concept as going to a buffet... lots of different types of food and plenty of it.

What at&t has done was used a passage in a contract to directly affect people with the unlimited plan so it's all of a sudden no longer the better plan. What do you mean it wasn't the high sought plan? If it wasn't, then why was there such a panick for people to sign up before it ended? I'll tell you why... because in this economy it's great to save $10 or $20. Not to mention, who really wants to sit there and count or wonder if you've gone over your data plan... when you signed up for unlimited?

Sure, you can say... well they warn you... they tell you how much data you've used, but they do the same with voice, yet plenty of people go over their limit and pay dearly for it... at 25 to 45 cents per minute... maybe more. I personally would rather have an unlimited data plan and not have to worry about my data usuage at all. Perhaps they should have "roll-over data"... because usually I wouldn't go over 2 GBs in a month... but there may be that month or two where I travel and use the phone more... watch some shows/movies and use it as a GPS. All of a sudden I'm now subject to paying quite a bit more because I went over.

It's a shame that you wingrider and your little buddy aristizzle both use one angle, and one angle only... that all of this is the consumer's issue. If they just would have read their contract better, they would know that at&t could do whatever they wanted to your contract.

Do you really feel it's right for at&t to put within the fine print of a long contract an escape route out of unlimited... when they used the word unlimited in such a different way to get you to sign up?

Again, there wouldn't be such an uproar if people on unlimited were getting the same speed and service others that pay $30 for the 3 GB plan are getting. It's like saying... well the 3 GB are paying for superior service. The problem is... that IF at&t suddenly says... okay, we'll let everyone on the unlimited plan go to 3 GB and then we'll throttle them... then NOBODY would leave their unlimited plan. The way at&t has taken this... they are saying to the consumers... you can have great service up to 3 GBs no problem for $30... or you can have up to 2.1 GB of great service... but if you want free "stuff" after the next .9 GBs... then we're going to do whatever we can to make sure you don't get to over 3 GBs by severely limiting you by speeds so ridiculously slow it makes dial up from 25 years ago seem speedy. 

Your argument... it's in the contract is WEAK. At&t is playing people... and you think everyone is suppose to just sit there and take it.

[King#3]

AT&T is fine if you don't mind paying outrageous prices, having HORRIBLE customer service, being slowed at only 2GB. I had been a loyal customer of AT&T for 10 years and had an unlimited data plan b/c I had it for several years and they tell me I'm in the top 5% because I listen to Pandora n use 2GB....BULL! I shouldn't b compared to all smartphone users I should b compared to all unlimited users. So I paid a $30 data plan n couldn't even get 2GB of use if I had a teir plan I would get more than that. So they are in their own way FORCING u to move to the teir plan so they can charge you overages! I don't care it cost me $300 but I quit my contract and moved to Sprint. They don't slow me, they were more than polite, moved all my infro from the AT&T phone to the Sprint phone. With my iphone 4 trade in with Sprint I only paid $60 for a iphone4s. If everyone stands up and instead of giving in n getting a teir plan just switch to sprint n leave AT&T in the DUST! They only do this b/c u let them

[throttled]

By throttling unlimited users speed around 2.1 GBs... it's basically like at&t saying the 3 GB plan is better than the unlimited.

It's like the government suddenly switching the value of gold and silver. Ummm... yes, your silver is now worth 1,750 an ounce... and the gold is worth $33 per ounce (but please people that own gold... don't get upset). Meanwhile people that own silver are partying in the streets, wondering why people with gold are mad... sounds fair to us. 

[King#3]

Do not let AT&T slow you more and more just to get a few more $ out of u. Is the $100/mo I pay for ONE phone not enough?? Guess not because now you want to force me to either only get 1Gb of data on my "unlimited plan" or pay twice as much for your twirled program. Instead of giving in and going to another data plan quit AT&T. I did n completely didn't mind I had to pay $300 to get out b/c I'd rather give them $300 than 10 more years of monthly service fees!! SPRINT has truly unlimited n I can stay online all day if I'd like!!! Stand up!!! They only do this because you let them. They know we need phones n know they are #1 but instead of trying to stay #1 n keep the customers they have had for 10 years just to make a few extra bucks they screw their customers n treat us like we owe them something for providing service.

[pucs]

The bottom line is AT&T is doing extreme throttling on it's unlimited data customers to encourage them to give up that plan in favor of the 30.00 3gb tiered plan. They can't just eliminate the grandfathered unlimited data plans because then they would be changing terms on their own contract and that would be the out customers would get to avoid the ETF's. Also this is truly a NET-Neutrality issue because AT&T is no longer providing access to all aspects of the internet when they put into place their extreme throttling. Your acces to all video services is cut-off and that in my opinion is a NET-Neutrality issue.

"The opinions expressed here are my own opinions only"

[yozhbk]

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aristizzle wrote:

Being throttled on your data plan is not a valid reason to cancel with no ETF. If you cancel service you will be billed an ETF and it is valid.

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Its 100% valid ! We are not being given service which was promise durring contract signing ! How is that not a valid reason to terminate ETF ? 

[yozhbk]

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aristizzle wrote:

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onebluefishee2 wrote:
@Aristizzle Are you just a drone for a corporation? Millions of customers are upset with the injustice of limiting "unlimited" service that they bought and are paying for -- don't you get it? Oh yeah, the fine print -- Do you have any integrity?

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No I'm a human being with a brain and a great knowledge on how contractual agreements work. I understand customers are upset, when did I ever state that they weren't? I don't have any say on the policies, but my job and duty is to enforce them. Yes I have plenty of integrity, unfortunately integrity has nothing to do with a x and a dotted line on a contract. A contract is a contract, and you agreed to it. Verizon (my current carrier) has a disclaimer in their TOS and contract that states they can throttle my use at anytime I reach the top 5% of users. Right now I have unlimited LTE data with my android smartphone with them, and currently they are not throttling their LTE network but they are on their 3g network. Now if Verizon decides to throttle their LTE network, I read, understood, and signed the contract and agreed to it therefore I'm not going to make a big fuss about it. I understand how contracts work, if I didn't agree with Verizon having the possiblity of throttling me, then I wouldnt have signed and searched for another carrier. That's why you always read what you sign...

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aristizzle, and all AT&T employees and forum moderators, do you realize the way you are treating long standing paying customers? This is horrible that as representatives of AT&T you are actually declaring WAR on your customers! What kind of company does that? Sadly AT&T...... Unfortunately AT&T's upper management could care less about the customers or for that matter thier own employees. They have put you as employees in a no win situation where you actually have to defend an indefensible policy.

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No ones declaring war, this has been a policy in place for a while and now with the large demand of mobile data AT&T decided it was time to start enforcing the policy. I have no say on what the polices are, but my job is to ensure that AT&T's policies are enforced.  My job has no win/lose situations. If it's a policy my job is to follow it. If your job has a policy it's your duty to follow it. Simple as that.

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Please tell me/show me what policy is that ? Where exactly does did it state when we got unlimited data that speeds could be brought down to sub-GPRS levels for the remainer of the billing cycle? Or where does it say that if we cont. to pay for a feature you can take it away, it does say you can take away that feature, but then again I cant have a smartphone on a plan with out data..... Paying for a feature that is unusable is really stealling .... 

[yozhbk]

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aristizzle wrote:

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onebluefishee2 wrote:
Aris...drizzle There is a part of me that feels sorry for you -- being in your position -- trying to somehow, someway justify what At$t is doing. With that being said, I still think its a bunch of crap and At$t will NOT get away with it! We are united and we will NOT let this continue. It's out of your hands At$t employee ... I suggest you look for another job in a more customer friendly company ... Oh btw check out Consumer Reports ... AT$T is the LOWEST rated in customer satisfaction !!! UNLIMITED means no limits ! We are not abusing the system ... We are USING the system

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The only thing that needs to be justified is why your so upset about what AT&T's doing when you agreed to their terms? If you didn't agree to it then why did you sign it? Do you not read what you sign? I sure do.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm fine just got promoted (woohoo! ) and AT&T treats me well. They work with my school schedule and are great to work for.

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No terms ever had anything regarding being given data with unsuable speeds/rate...... past 1.6GB no where it said anything even remotly close to this or anything that can be justified in that..... We are not able to use the phones when they are being throthled at all so again where did it say that.... 

[kwelker]

I was throttled to 54kbps a full 16 hours AFTER my new billing cycle started.  The same speeds I was seeling while being throttled.

Aristizzle, please explain how that is not essentially denying me service for 3 days!!  Including the FIRST day of a new billing cycle when my data usage was 0 (zero).  AT&T is not following their contract with me.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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throttled wrote:

throttled wrote:

Someone made a great point earlier, and I'd like to bring it up again.

aristizzle, you see nothing wrong with at&t throttling speed to the slowest trickle possible to irk customers into leaving their highly sought "unlimited" plans.

What if at&t also throttled phone calls, and limited them to 30 seconds and then had the tower automatically dump you? Would that type of tactic also be fair? They could argue the same point you seem to be beating... Hey everyone... it's UNLIMITED... we never said what kind of speed you were going to get... and we never said it was going to be continuous. You can call back and have as many 30 second calls as you want!

Whoever posted that.. that was a great point. And I'd love to hear a response... but we know you're not good at answering tough questions, so just ignore that one too.

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wingrider01 wrote: what - "highly sought "unlimited" plans" are you talking about, do you have some insite into "unlimited plans" that the carrier is offering under the table?

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Don't play stupid with me. When att&t and Verizon were ending the limited plans, everyone was running around saying, hey, you better get in on the unlimited plans now. Getting the unlimited plan was suppose to be a way to get something and save money... I don't think it's any secret. It's the same concept as going to a buffet... lots of different types of food and plenty of it.

What at&t has done was used a passage in a contract to directly affect people with the unlimited plan so it's all of a sudden no longer the better plan. What do you mean it wasn't the high sought plan? If it wasn't, then why was there such a panick for people to sign up before it ended? I'll tell you why... because in this economy it's great to save $10 or $20. Not to mention, who really wants to sit there and count or wonder if you've gone over your data plan... when you signed up for unlimited?

Sure, you can say... well they warn you... they tell you how much data you've used, but they do the same with voice, yet plenty of people go over their limit and pay dearly for it... at 25 to 45 cents per minute... maybe more. I personally would rather have an unlimited data plan and not have to worry about my data usuage at all. Perhaps they should have "roll-over data"... because usually I wouldn't go over 2 GBs in a month... but there may be that month or two where I travel and use the phone more... watch some shows/movies and use it as a GPS. All of a sudden I'm now subject to paying quite a bit more because I went over.

It's a shame that you wingrider and your little buddy aristizzle both use one angle, and one angle only... that all of this is the consumer's issue. If they just would have read their contract better, they would know that at&t could do whatever they wanted to your contract.

Do you really feel it's right for at&t to put within the fine print of a long contract an escape route out of unlimited... when they used the word unlimited in such a different way to get you to sign up?

Again, there wouldn't be such an uproar if people on unlimited were getting the same speed and service others that pay $30 for the 3 GB plan are getting. It's like saying... well the 3 GB are paying for superior service. The problem is... that IF at&t suddenly says... okay, we'll let everyone on the unlimited plan go to 3 GB and then we'll throttle them... then NOBODY would leave their unlimited plan. The way at&t has taken this... they are saying to the consumers... you can have great service up to 3 GBs no problem for $30... or you can have up to 2.1 GB of great service... but if you want free "stuff" after the next .9 GBs... then we're going to do whatever we can to make sure you don't get to over 3 GBs by severely limiting you by speeds so ridiculously slow it makes dial up from 25 years ago seem speedy. 

Your argument... it's in the contract is WEAK. At&t is playing people... and you think everyone is suppose to just sit there and take it.

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sorry no "playing stupid" with you, lets leave that response at that. Would suggest that you be a little more accurate when you reference something that was discontinued years ago with the past tense forms of the words, the statement as written can and has been taken as current and not past tense.

As far as a "buffet" read the fine print they place of business reserves the right to limit you to what you take. same as a "unlimited" contract, the fine print is what you have to look for, read and understand.

Fine print in a contract, tos, fup,aup or any binding document is the life blood of any agreement, which makes it the most important thing in the binding agreement, if the end user does not read and understand it whne they place their signature on the document either electronicly or physically they are bound to the terms and it does not matter if you read or did not read the document, kind of like signing a lease on a car and not readingm understanding or comprehending the mileage limitations that are set in the agreement and the per mile cost for overages and bring the vehicle back with 70,000 miles on it when you agreement was for 35,000 miles - just because you did not know that it would cost you .15 a mile for anything over the limit does not mean that you don;t have to adhere to the terms.

Dealing with binding contracts a majority of the time, I do not see anything wrong with how they are written, the arguement about it "being in the contract" is not weak, it is binding even though you can't comprehend this simple fact.

Good luck in your future endevors, just make sure you read the fine print first.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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yozhbk wrote:

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aristizzle wrote:

Being throttled on your data plan is not a valid reason to cancel with no ETF. If you cancel service you will be billed an ETF and it is valid.

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Its 100% valid ! We are not being given service which was promise durring contract signing ! How is that not a valid reason to terminate ETF ? 

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might be IF you are under the same 2 year contract that was issue when the unlimited plan was still a viable choice, but if you are not the terms are grandfathered in and hence does not relate to a "no etf" termination clause. It is 100 % invalid. 

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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yozhbk wrote:

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aristizzle wrote:

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onebluefishee2 wrote:
@Aristizzle Are you just a drone for a corporation? Millions of customers are upset with the injustice of limiting "unlimited" service that they bought and are paying for -- don't you get it? Oh yeah, the fine print -- Do you have any integrity?

---

No I'm a human being with a brain and a great knowledge on how contractual agreements work. I understand customers are upset, when did I ever state that they weren't? I don't have any say on the policies, but my job and duty is to enforce them. Yes I have plenty of integrity, unfortunately integrity has nothing to do with a x and a dotted line on a contract. A contract is a contract, and you agreed to it. Verizon (my current carrier) has a disclaimer in their TOS and contract that states they can throttle my use at anytime I reach the top 5% of users. Right now I have unlimited LTE data with my android smartphone with them, and currently they are not throttling their LTE network but they are on their 3g network. Now if Verizon decides to throttle their LTE network, I read, understood, and signed the contract and agreed to it therefore I'm not going to make a big fuss about it. I understand how contracts work, if I didn't agree with Verizon having the possiblity of throttling me, then I wouldnt have signed and searched for another carrier. That's why you always read what you sign...

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aristizzle, and all AT&T employees and forum moderators, do you realize the way you are treating long standing paying customers? This is horrible that as representatives of AT&T you are actually declaring WAR on your customers! What kind of company does that? Sadly AT&T...... Unfortunately AT&T's upper management could care less about the customers or for that matter thier own employees. They have put you as employees in a no win situation where you actually have to defend an indefensible policy.

---

No ones declaring war, this has been a policy in place for a while and now with the large demand of mobile data AT&T decided it was time to start enforcing the policy. I have no say on what the polices are, but my job is to ensure that AT&T's policies are enforced.  My job has no win/lose situations. If it's a policy my job is to follow it. If your job has a policy it's your duty to follow it. Simple as that.

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Please tell me/show me what policy is that ? Where exactly does did it state when we got unlimited data that speeds could be brought down to sub-GPRS levels for the remainer of the billing cycle? Or where does it say that if we cont. to pay for a feature you can take it away, it does say you can take away that feature, but then again I cant have a smartphone on a plan with out data..... Paying for a feature that is unusable is really stealling .... 

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the text that shows the ability has been copied into this thread ad-nauseum, go back and look. Look up the terms of a "grandfathered" feature on att's website and you will get the answer you seek padawan

grandfathered services can be pulled at any time at any corporations action with no reprecussions. Some carriers have a 1 year term on some of their grandfathered services, 1 year after the feature is grandfathered you get a notice to choose the new feature that replaced the removed one

[yozhbk]

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wingrider01 wrote:

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yozhbk wrote:

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aristizzle wrote:

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onebluefishee2 wrote:
@Aristizzle Are you just a drone for a corporation? Millions of customers are upset with the injustice of limiting "unlimited" service that they bought and are paying for -- don't you get it? Oh yeah, the fine print -- Do you have any integrity?

---

No I'm a human being with a brain and a great knowledge on how contractual agreements work. I understand customers are upset, when did I ever state that they weren't? I don't have any say on the policies, but my job and duty is to enforce them. Yes I have plenty of integrity, unfortunately integrity has nothing to do with a x and a dotted line on a contract. A contract is a contract, and you agreed to it. Verizon (my current carrier) has a disclaimer in their TOS and contract that states they can throttle my use at anytime I reach the top 5% of users. Right now I have unlimited LTE data with my android smartphone with them, and currently they are not throttling their LTE network but they are on their 3g network. Now if Verizon decides to throttle their LTE network, I read, understood, and signed the contract and agreed to it therefore I'm not going to make a big fuss about it. I understand how contracts work, if I didn't agree with Verizon having the possiblity of throttling me, then I wouldnt have signed and searched for another carrier. That's why you always read what you sign...

---

aristizzle, and all AT&T employees and forum moderators, do you realize the way you are treating long standing paying customers? This is horrible that as representatives of AT&T you are actually declaring WAR on your customers! What kind of company does that? Sadly AT&T...... Unfortunately AT&T's upper management could care less about the customers or for that matter thier own employees. They have put you as employees in a no win situation where you actually have to defend an indefensible policy.

---

No ones declaring war, this has been a policy in place for a while and now with the large demand of mobile data AT&T decided it was time to start enforcing the policy. I have no say on what the polices are, but my job is to ensure that AT&T's policies are enforced.  My job has no win/lose situations. If it's a policy my job is to follow it. If your job has a policy it's your duty to follow it. Simple as that.

---

Please tell me/show me what policy is that ? Where exactly does did it state when we got unlimited data that speeds could be brought down to sub-GPRS levels for the remainer of the billing cycle? Or where does it say that if we cont. to pay for a feature you can take it away, it does say you can take away that feature, but then again I cant have a smartphone on a plan with out data..... Paying for a feature that is unusable is really stealling .... 

---

the text that shows the ability has been copied into this thread ad-nauseum, go back and look. Look up the terms of a "grandfathered" feature on att's website and you will get the answer you seek padawan

grandfathered services can be pulled at any time at any corporations action with no reprecussions. Some carriers have a 1 year term on some of their grandfathered services, 1 year after the feature is grandfathered you get a notice to choose the new feature that replaced the removed one

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You keep saying this, but again no one here showed me proof that this was set in the contract, T&S or anywhere else. The grandfathered feature as you mention, was switched for me to LTE unlimited data, which again did not stated that would have a LIMIT to how much data I can consume before my speeds would be cut but over 99% for LTE measure. 

So again I ask you how this is legal or follows the feature set or T&S or contract. The feature that I`m paying for clearly states LTE, it clearly doesn’t have 2GB, 1.6GB limit or speed I would be dropped to when I reach that "LIMIT".  It does say that they can terminate my data, but then they would have to refund me for the rest of the month and again I cant have a smart phone on ATT network without a data plan. 

I guess the thing is yes, if they said ok no more unlimited, here is 3GB data plan and thats it, or chose 5GB data plan or something, but dropping the speeds at as low as 1.6GB data used on an LTE network is not part of terms or contract! 

So again sorry, but your argument is not based on anything, except that ATT is allowed to do what they want to do, because something in the contract or T&S might some how remotely will be interpreted as being relevant to this or that, [Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

[throttled]

To you people blaming the customers for not reading the contract... or basically agreeing to something they shouldn't have... shame on you. I don't think anyone could have seen this coming... that at&t would go so LOW to reduce the stream to levels that are basically unusable for a smart phone. When you're paying $180 and up for two smart phones (per month), I think you can understand when suddenly your limited to using it only as a phone and not for all the other features it was advertised as. 

Again.. I say the point is great... on the unlimited voice plan. How would you like it if after 1000 minutes your "unlimited" voice package suddenly started dropping calls at eactly 30 seconds?  Then you call up the phone company and they tell you... "Well we never said we guaranteed length of call... you can call and have as many  30 second calls as you want... we told you it's unlimited, and it is!" Would you just take it?

OR... say you have a 700 minute plan and you accidently go over it because of some family events in your life (accidents, death, divorce, hospital... plenty of things could happen). People go over their minutes sometimes... so then you get your next bill and it says you will be billed $25 for each additional minute over your plan. You look and see that you went over by 100 minutes and now you're suddenly on the hook for $2,500 for those stinking 100 extra minutes. Would you say, hey, that's [word filter avoidance] ... you can't do that! Or would you go look in your contract and see that they have put in there that they reserve the right to change their overage fee to whatever they want. I guess you would just chalk it up to... Well, they got me there... I should have read the contract better.... I guess I owe $2,500.   YEAH RIGHT.. you'd be screaming and kicking.

The BOTTOM LINE: at&t is discriminating against people with unlimited contracts... giving them substandard service (in comparision to people paying for a 3 GB plan) in order to get them to pay more money for something they should already have at unlimited levels. All that... just so they will have the ability to charge them more after they go over 3 GBs. 

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

---

yozhbk wrote:

You keep saying this, but again no one here showed me proof that this was set in the contract, T&S or anywhere else. The grandfathered feature as you mention, was switched for me to LTE unlimited data, which again did not stated that would have a LIMIT to how much data I can consume before my speeds would be cut but over 99% for LTE measure. 

So again I ask you how this is legal or follows the feature set or T&S or contract. The feature that I`m paying for clearly states LTE, it clearly doesn’t have 2GB, 1.6GB limit or speed I would be dropped to when I reach that "LIMIT".  It does say that they can terminate my data, but then they would have to refund me for the rest of the month and again I cant have a smart phone on ATT network without a data plan. 

I guess the thing is yes, if they said ok no more unlimited, here is 3GB data plan and thats it, or chose 5GB data plan or something, but dropping the speeds at as low as 1.6GB data used on an LTE network is not part of terms or contract! 

So again sorry, but your argument is not based on anything, except that ATT is allowed to do what they want to do, because something in the contract or T&S might some how remotely will be interpreted as being relevant to this or that, [Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

---

...Accordingly, AT&T reserves the right to (i) deny, disconnect, modify and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network, including without limitation, after a significant period of inactivity or after sessions of excessive usage and (ii) otherwise protect its wireless network from harm, compromised capacity or degradation in performance, which may impact legitimate data flows.

does that make it plain enough? If not it is just the simple fact that you will not accept that it is documented in thge agreement

[throttled]

Apply at&t's strategy to getting movies in the mail.. (which I think Netflix has or is doing away with). 

You and your friend sign up the same day. You get the unlimited movies plan for $18 (and then they discontinue it... and grandfather whoever had it)... while your friend gets five movies a month for $18 on the new plan. Which plan is better... yours or your friends? I'll go out on a limb and say the unlimited should be better.

Then, two days later your friend gets his first movie, and you're sitting there waiting... and waiting... and waiting for 10 days... and then you get your movie. Meanwhile your friend has already had three movies and is sending away for their forth.

Does it make it right for a company to drag their feet and give bad service in relation to other service just because they sold you an unlimited plan and now want to renege on the deal? I know... I know... they didn't renege right? Well... while there may be nothing in the contract saying they can't take there sweet time to get you the movies, it goes against the spirt of the contract and good faith. They should be putting a good faith effort to give the same level of service.

If you can't see what at&t is doing here... and you're just going to go on and on and on and on and blame the customer for not reading their contract, then you have no conscience. Contracts are not meant to make play games with. You can't discriminate and do one thing to one set of customers and another thing to another set of customers if the one set is suppose to have a higher level plan. (and everyone but a few select here know that unlimited is or should be higher than 3 GBs)... you're just playing word games when you say at&t never guaranteed speed... just that you would unlimited. 

Ummm... bring speed to a CRAWL... a TRICKLE  of what it was before the "governor" was put on is directly affecting the amount of unlimited data you can have. Heck... if by day 15 in your cycle you're limited to .01 mbps at 2.1 GBs used... how much more data could you possibly use at that ridiculously low speed? Even if it was being used 24/7 for the rest of the cycle? At&t's stance on this and how they are treating their customers is PATHETIC. Verizon doesn't impose the throttling to such ridiculous standards... at least not yet. And if they're smart, they won't do it after watching this blow up in at&t's face. 

[throttled]

does that make it plain enough? If not it is just the simple fact that you will not accept that it is documented in thge agreement

------------------------------------------

Every big company puts stuff in there like that.. things to cover their butt if they need to change things. We get it. So you say... well it's simple... you don't have to sign the contract. Yeah sure... we could just walk around with no cell phone at all. But every company puts in clauses that are slanted for them. That doesn't mean you have to go above and beyond and purposely try and tick the customer off by giving them service so horrible they don't want to use it any more... or they basically can't use the service anymore because it's substandard.

[yozhbk]

---

wingrider01 wrote:

---

yozhbk wrote:

You keep saying this, but again no one here showed me proof that this was set in the contract, T&S or anywhere else. The grandfathered feature as you mention, was switched for me to LTE unlimited data, which again did not stated that would have a LIMIT to how much data I can consume before my speeds would be cut but over 99% for LTE measure. 

So again I ask you how this is legal or follows the feature set or T&S or contract. The feature that I`m paying for clearly states LTE, it clearly doesn’t have 2GB, 1.6GB limit or speed I would be dropped to when I reach that "LIMIT".  It does say that they can terminate my data, but then they would have to refund me for the rest of the month and again I cant have a smart phone on ATT network without a data plan. 

I guess the thing is yes, if they said ok no more unlimited, here is 3GB data plan and thats it, or chose 5GB data plan or something, but dropping the speeds at as low as 1.6GB data used on an LTE network is not part of terms or contract! 

So again sorry, but your argument is not based on anything, except that ATT is allowed to do what they want to do, because something in the contract or T&S might some how remotely will be interpreted as being relevant to this or that, [Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

---

...Accordingly, AT&T reserves the right to (i) deny, disconnect, modify and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network, including without limitation, after a significant period of inactivity or after sessions of excessive usage and (ii) otherwise protect its wireless network from harm, compromised capacity or degradation in performance, which may impact legitimate data flows.

does that make it plain enough? If not it is just the simple fact that you will not accept that it is documented in thge agreement

---

Actually no it doesnt. The way your interpreting this, you are saying that ATT believes that we as a whole 5% are using the network in the manner they are prohibiting at 1.6GB while the users who are on 3GB plan are not doing that with out violation ? So again the service is not terminated with refund.. the service is modified to being unusable so again ETF is not valid...  Also excessuve usage is not defined so that makes the statement not valid ! HAHA thanks for proving my point for me !

[seajohn]

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wingrider01 wrote:..Accordingly, AT&T reserves the right to (i) deny, disconnect, modify and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network, including without limitation, after a significant period of inactivity or after sessions of excessive usage and (ii) otherwise protect its wireless network from harm, compromised capacity or degradation in performance, which may impact legitimate data flows.

does that make it plain enough? If not it is just the simple fact that you will not accept that it is documented in thge agreement

---

First, that section does not apply to legitimate uses of AT&T's network; section 6.2 specifies what AT&T can do to users who use its network in PROHIBITED ways.

Let's break that sentence down:

Accordingly, This ties this statement to the previous part of the section, where they say that you can use the network for legitimate uses, and they list prohibited uses.  By my reading, the whole of section 6.2 applies only to prohibited usage, not to 'excessive' legitimate usage.

AT&T reserves the right to (i) deny, disconnect, modify and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited This does not apply to 'excessive' data use; AT&T specifically says at the top of section 6.2 that most common uses for Internet browsing, email and intranet access are permitted by your data plan; these are not prohibited.

  or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network,If one user's 2.999GB of use on a $30/3GB plan does not adversly impact or hinder access, then another user's 2.999GB of use on a $30/unlimited plan also does not adversely impact or hinder access. 

I think that AT&T originally planned to throttle the unlimited users at a point just above the paid threshold (2GB originally).  When they moved to a 3GB plan, they forgot to coordinate with the throttling department and raise the throttling limit to 3GB. 

[yozhbk]

---

seajohn wrote:

---

wingrider01 wrote:..Accordingly, AT&T reserves the right to (i) deny, disconnect, modify and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network, including without limitation, after a significant period of inactivity or after sessions of excessive usage and (ii) otherwise protect its wireless network from harm, compromised capacity or degradation in performance, which may impact legitimate data flows.

does that make it plain enough? If not it is just the simple fact that you will not accept that it is documented in thge agreement

---

First, that section does not apply to legitimate uses of AT&T's network; section 6.2 specifies what AT&T can do to users who use its network in PROHIBITED ways.

Let's break that sentence down:

Accordingly, This ties this statement to the previous part of the section, where they say that you can use the network for legitimate uses, and they list prohibited uses.  By my reading, the whole of section 6.2 applies only to prohibited usage, not to 'excessive' legitimate usage.

AT&T reserves the right to (i) deny, disconnect, modify and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited This does not apply to 'excessive' data use; AT&T specifically says at the top of section 6.2 that most common uses for Internet browsing, email and intranet access are permitted by your data plan; these are not prohibited.

  or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network,If one user's 2.999GB of use on a $30/3GB plan does not adversly impact or hinder access, then another user's 2.999GB of use on a $30/unlimited plan also does not adversely impact or hinder access. 

I think that AT&T originally planned to throttle the unlimited users at a point just above the paid threshold (2GB originally).  When they moved to a 3GB plan, they forgot to coordinate with the throttling department and raise the throttling limit to 3GB. 

---

I think you are 100% right !

[throttled]

Yeah... that sounds right... 100% right. While I think it stinks that if you have the unlimited plan your service automatically drops down to a trickle.. maybe 1 to 5% of the normal speed. BUT... it's a much better alternative than people with a lesser plan (that's not unlimited) to get more bang for their buck and be unthrottled because at&t wants them to go over so they can charge more money on overages.

[throttled]

To clarify my last post... while it would still stink to automatically be throttled at 3 GBs... it would be at least fair to have equal service through those first 3 GBs compared to others who pay for the 3 GB plan.

At&t's fuzzy math:

3 GB > unlimited

[seajohn]

It would have made a lot more sense for them to do something like:

3GB: Send a warning

4GB: Throttle to half speed

5GB: Throttle to quarter speed

5.5GB: Throttle to 10% speed

That way if you're on the grandfathered plan you still get a little bit extra, while AT&T's story would sound a little bit more plausible. 

[pucs]

The bottom line is AT&T is doing extreme throttling on it's unlimited data customers at 2GB's to encourage them to give up that plan in favor of the 30.00 3gb tiered plan. They can't just eliminate the grandfathered unlimited data plans because then they would be changing terms on their own contract and that would be the out customers would get to avoid the ETF's. Also this is truly a NET-Neutrality issue because AT&T is no longer providing access to all aspects of the internet when they put into place their extreme throttling. Your access to all video services is cut-off and that in my opinion is a NET-Neutrality issue. I believe that any complaints that are made in regard to this extreme throttling should also include the Net-Neutrality aspect! All of the throttling is AT&T's way of saying we don't want to continue our grandfathered Unlimited Data Plan but we also don't want to let those customers out of their contracts without an ETF!

"The opinions expressed here are my own opinions only"

[pucs]

The bottom line is AT&T is doing extreme throttling on it's unlimited data customers at 2GB's to encourage them to give up that plan in favor of the 30.00 3gb tiered plan. They can't just eliminate the grandfathered unlimited data plans because then they would be changing terms on their own contract and that would be the out customers would get to avoid the ETF's. Also this is truly a NET-Neutrality issue because AT&T is no longer providing access to all aspects of the internet when they put into place their extreme throttling. Your access to all video services is cut-off and that in my opinion is a NET-Neutrality issue. I believe that any complaints that are made in regard to this extreme throttling should also include the Net-Neutrality aspect! All of the throttling is AT&T's way of saying we don't want to continue our grandfathered Unlimited Data Plan but we also don't want to let those customers out of their contracts without an ETF!

"The opinions expressed here are my own opinions only"