As an introduction: many of you are aware that cell phone companies offer monthly "plans" that include a certain number of minutes. If a consumer uses minutes under that limit, there are no additional charges. If a consumer, however, uses more than the limit of minutes, the service typically charges a very high rate — 40 cents per minute or more. Smart consumers will pay close attention to their cell phone use to avoid paying these high rates.
At any rate, I was recently an AT&T wireless customer.in the Spring of I noticed that AT&T had started an online "minutes used" estimator. I was thrilled to have this tool to help me manage my cell phone use to avoid extra charges.
In April, I monitored my usage every day. On the final day of my plan, I noticed that I had a few minutes left; thus, I only made a few short calls. A few hours after my final call for the day, I noticed that I was one minute under my limit.
It should be noted that AT&T makes disclaimers for their minutes used service: consmers are warned that the actual minutes used may be higher than the estimated minutes used. This is fine — we consumers should take note (and I did). However, I think it's reasonable that consumers should assume that the minutes used will be a *REASONALBE APPROXIMATION* of the actual minutes used. If not, why is the service offered at all?
At any rate, a week or so later, I opened my bill. I opened it with confidence that my actual minutes used would be under the lmit on my plan, or at the worse, a few minutes over. However, I read with horror that I was TWO HUNDRED MINUTES over the allotted minutes in my plan. As you can imagine, this was infuriating! Over the next couple of weeks, I called AT&T several times to talk about the problem. At different times, I spoke angrily, politely, professionally, etc. Regardless of my manner, I got the same unapologetic response from AT&T: that it was MY FAULT for trusting their minutes used estimator!
This is irresponsible and unnaceptable! Why offer the service if it is going to be such a TERRIBLE ESTIMATE of the actual minutes used? I asked this question several times, but the only unapologetic (never once did I get an "I'm sorry, sir") response I got was the one listed above.
I can only conclude that AT&T purposefully offers this poor estimate service in order to trick consumers into using more than their alotted minutes. This allows AT&T to charge 40 cents a minute — making them rich, and the consumers poor. They are able to do this because they, like many of the other cell phone services, sign us to one or two-year contracts — if we terminate the contract early, we have to pay an expensive fee. What a scam!!!
At any rate, I was so angry with AT&T that I terminated my contract early and paid the fee. I will never do business with AT&T again, and I urge you to do the same. I also will never sign a yearly contract with a cellular service provider again. I am currently using another cellular service on a "month-to-month" plan, with no contract. If my new cellular provider offers me lousy service similar to AT&T's, I can quit without incurring a fee. I urge you all to do the same.
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