AT&T: Unlimited throttling, deception, fraud, hostility, incompetence.

AT&T: Unlimited throttling, deception, fraud, hostility, incompetence.

Started
February 9, 2012
Petition to
Petition Closed
This petition had 167 supporters

Why this petition matters

Started by David Collins

 

Imagine marathoners passing the 20 mile mark abruptly being served Gatorade in thimbles.  "You can still drink an unlimited amount," would be AT&T's crafty reply.  This is exactly the thanks a growing number of AT&T's most loyal customers recieves each month for paying their bills and trusting that AT&T will honor the meaning of "Unlimited".

This is a petition to force AT&T to stop using the term "Unlimited" to describe a plan that severely caps and limits data usage for a growing number of their customers who AT&T claims are using "too much" data for their region even though they are on an "Unlimited" data plan. Yet, even if you buy into the absurdity of a limited "Unlimited" plan, AT&T refuses to give any guidance as to how much is too much for any one person. They have aggressively choked data rates, and thus data usage, for customers who have used as little as 2.1GB of data of their "Unlimited" allotment for that month. They use an undefined upper 5% data usage as the threshold for punishment. Since they do not define who and how many users are in your region, they could limit your data usage for using ANY amount of data over 2GB.  And because there will always be a "top 5%" no matter how many people opt for a different plan, AT&T is essentially killing their meaningless "Unlimited" plan by attempting to force everyone off of it and into one of their other capped data plans. 

How meaningless is "Unlimited"?  Even if you confined all of your online activity to only streaming an hour long podcast and maybe an hour of high quality Spotify music a day, it will only take you about 22 days to reach 2.1GB of data usage - a threshold AT&T has already deemed for some customers to be punishable, by limiting your available data from that point on by 96% to less than 1/25th of what your data usage might have otherwise been. (This assumes going from an average 3Mbps uncapped data rate to, in my case, 0.12Mbps) This results in severe sluggishness for any app that relies on data from the Internet, and your Spotify music will pause every few seconds.  Though some AT&T reps say you are guaranteed at least 2GB of un-chocked data rates, others say there is no guarantee at all, nor is there any limit to how slow they can choke your data speeds.  AT&T claims that limiting and capping your data rate defies mathematics by magically not also limiting and capping your "Unlimited" data usage. 

 

NONSENSE!  

 

Despite AT&T's adamant protests to the contrary, when they changed the terms of their contract, they forfeited the right to continue calling it "Unlimited", and thus are guilty of deception and fraud in using the term "Unlimited" to describe this new capped and limited data plan. 

If this abject fraud enrages you as it does me, please sign this petition and also file a complaint with these organizations:

FCC:  http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

FTC:  https://www.FTCComplaintAssistant.gov/

BBB:  http://www.bbb.org/

Also, you can call AT&T's Department of Data Usage: (866) 344-7584 and get differing versions of their 'make it up as you go' 'Unlimited' data plan to throw more fuel on your outrage.

Another AT&T number to call to get you straight to the upper level is (866) 245-8287.

Here is a link to a video that accurately demonstrates what you can expect for daring to enjoy the reason you chose and paid for the "Unlimited" plan all these years:

http://is.gd/Dyqsfj

 

Sign, file, call, make some noise!

 

Petition Closed

This petition had 167 supporters

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