Misleading data usage alerts

I understand that, but that's not my point.

The problem isn't just that it is delayed. The problem is that the alert is attributing the entire previous billing period's data usage to the new billing period.  That's what I want AT&T to fix.

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@m_schmitt wrote:

I understand that, but that's not my point.

 

The problem isn't just that it is delayed. The problem is that the alert is attributing the entire previous billing period's data usage to the new billing period.  That's what I want AT&T to fix.

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Exactly...not unless people think that it's fair and reasonable for AT&T to "roll over" data usage from a previous billing period and add it to the data usage total for the following billing period.

Or to better explain the issue as a paradox--say your limit is 10 GB; it is hypothetically possible to clearly not go over 10 GB in each of two consecutive billing periods, yet be charged for going over your limit on the latter billing period, depending on exactly how much and when the data was used during the previous billing period.

Using an extreme example--you use a total of 5 GB in January, and 6 GB in February; on the surface, you're clearly under the 10 GB limit for each of those two months, but if it turns out you just so happened to use 4.5 GB during the last two days of your January cycle--I know, really extreme but it's to bolster my point--it might not show up on your January bill cycle but rather on your February bill cycle, thus making your February usage 10.5 GB which puts your total over the limit, thus incurring an overage charge.  Yes I realize that you may not necessarily know that you used 5 GB in January unless you have both your January and February bills in hand, but I think you get my point...

Hey m_schmitt,

Simply put, the text is not accurate. Check your current cycle usage online. There was little or no rolling over of data.

Due to the logistics, of delayed data notices, will occasionally have incorrect dates.

The text messages are sent as a courtesy and are by no means something AT&T verifies are reliable, please check your online usage to confirm the accuracy of anything that's been sent.

-Alex

I had a similar experience.  I received an alert around 3:00 a.m. on 2-20-14 that told me I reached 90% of my usage.  I hadn't used data for 4-5 days, except for a few background things and had barely dented my 3GB alotment for the month and my new months starts on the 6th of the month.

Something was definitely in error.  I didn't want to pay overage charges, so I turned my data off completely.  I did a check a day ago to see what the text usage report would tell me and discovered I was now where I anticipated I'd be with data.  The alert was a bogus error.

I'd have to say that I've had a similar experience a couple of months earlier and had to just shut my data off, since it was the day before the end of my billing period.  I had over 2 GB left and hadn't used any data for several days.  I thought I'd watch a very low resolution podcast.  Prior experience told me I should have been able to watch at least 2 whole podcasts without any overage.  Here I was, 15 minutes into the first podcast and get and alert that I'm close to maxing out my data. 

Definitely something wrong!  It is useless to call Customer Service - I spend over an hour on the phone yesterday.  I would have felt better banging my head against the wall.  I spend over 45 minutes on hold with a lady that put me on hold after every question/comment I made and was obviously searching a data base.  I was wondering if she worked for multiple companies, because she had no answers for anything basic that I asked about data reporting and I spend the majority of my time on hold.  Wow, then I was abruptly transferred to another person, who was rude and told me I was negating her responses.

Well, the info I received from these two ladies was incorrect.  There is a delay in reporting data and in testing it last night, there can be a disparity between what appears online, the MyATT App and the data use text message.  In light of that, I believe that the usage alerts I received a couple of months ago were bogus as well.  I see there is a note about a delay of 2-5 days.  I can't understand how there really can be that long of a delay with simple things like listening to a local audio podcast or a local podcast video.

I'm left perplexed and wondering how you can get a straight answer from anyone at AT&T.  It centainly isn't easy to get to someone who has any knowledge and can provide accurate information.  I really don't appreciate it when I call for help and have to rely on someone who tries to find an answer in a data base.  I've generally already done that on my own.  There doesn't appear to be any quality control at AT&T.

I'm, also, wondering if there is a variance in data reporting in that the delay time can be inconsistent.  There appears to be some way of grouping it, but it doesn't make sense to me.  When an online report eventually appeared for my data usage yesterday, the usage times were off.  I'm Pacific Time, and if anything, it might show a later time than my use to denote AT&T's operating time zone.  However, the usage time for the podcast audio I listened to denoted a time 3 hours earlier that it was.  I was using the data around 7:00 p.m. - not 3:00 p.m.  If they were recording by another US time zone, my 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time use should have recorded as a later time.

We have been receiving these false data alerts since April. We assumed they were correct, paid up for more data and tried to figure out who in the family was responsible.  Today I called AT&T and learned that we actually had excess data left over during those periods and were nowhere near going over!   I suggested this was a fraudent way to scaring customers into buying more data and the AT&T rep said no, it was just incorrect.  I'm now reading the other posts about this so called glitch in their system and I just can't believe it.  Is this even legal?

Oh, and we also $24 in app purchases for apps we had never heard off.  (Beats and Navigator.)  He removed those charges but we're still stuck with charges for data we didn't need. 

If you have the Qualcomm processor it seems to utilize more data. Two app packages: (com.qualcomm.atfwd and
com.qualcomm.timeservice) will use up data. Those are the only two hardware app packages that you can remove without causing harm to the functionality of the phone. Just an FYI