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AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

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Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#81

Post by adrr »

aneth4 wrote: post #79
kevingadd wrote: post #3

AT&T are scum and this sort of stuff is standard practice with them. You shouldn't be giving them your money if you can avoid it. If you've got a GSM phone with the right radio bands, I suggest taking a look at the $30 plans here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans For CDMA I believe Sprint and Verizon offer prepaid plans without contracts at around $50 for talk/data. The key is that IMO, a prepaid p…

AT&T is a company providing a service for a price. They are not scum. I've used AT&T for many years. I'm not always delighted with every policy - the now changed policy of refusing to unlock out of contract iPhones was a particular bone. However I have almost always been satisfied with the service and have had no problem contacting them to correct billing issues. Why people feel entitled to services at the price they…

Its not competitive when everyone is locked in 2 year contacts. Want a true competitive market, get rid of contacts and force people to buy their phones.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#82

Post by logn »

aneth4 wrote: post #79
kevingadd wrote: post #3

AT&T are scum and this sort of stuff is standard practice with them. You shouldn't be giving them your money if you can avoid it. If you've got a GSM phone with the right radio bands, I suggest taking a look at the $30 plans here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans For CDMA I believe Sprint and Verizon offer prepaid plans without contracts at around $50 for talk/data. The key is that IMO, a prepaid p…

AT&T is a company providing a service for a price. They are not scum. I've used AT&T for many years. I'm not always delighted with every policy - the now changed policy of refusing to unlock out of contract iPhones was a particular bone. However I have almost always been satisfied with the service and have had no problem contacting them to correct billing issues. Why people feel entitled to services at the price they…

>Why people feel entitled to services at the price they choose is beyond me

Did you read the article? ATT detected he had a smartphone and upgraded his plan to include data, forcibly. That's like GM saying, oh we've detected your car comes with OnStar and are activating the OnStar plan. If you don't like it, you're more than free to sell your car.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#84

Post by yozmsn »

RobotCaleb wrote: post #61
timcederman wrote: post #56

What's with the svbtle ripoff?

What's with the only comments where I hear someone complain about a website looking like another website only ever asking about svbtle? What's so special about that site? Or in sites looking similar in the first place?

I guess it's because a couple months ago svbtle debuted as an invite-only blogging thing, and a bunch of people got really angry and created an exact copy just to spite what the Org. guy was doing which was basically saying: if you see this design you know you're gonna be reading quality stuff.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#85

Post by joelrunyon »

logn wrote: post #82
aneth4 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AT&T is a company providing a service for a price. They are not scum. I've used AT&T for many years. I'm not always delighted with every policy - the now changed policy of refusing to unlock out of contract iPhones was a particular bone. However I have almost always been satisfied with the service and have had no problem contacting them to correct billing issues. Why people feel entitled to services at the price they…

>Why people feel entitled to services at the price they choose is beyond me Did you read the article? ATT detected he had a smartphone and upgraded his plan to include data, forcibly. That's like GM saying, oh we've detected your car comes with OnStar and are activating the OnStar plan. If you don't like it, you're more than free to sell your car.

The phones are slightly cheaper, but the point stands. Good analogy.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#86

Post by joelrunyon »

aneth4 wrote: post #79
kevingadd wrote: post #3

AT&T are scum and this sort of stuff is standard practice with them. You shouldn't be giving them your money if you can avoid it. If you've got a GSM phone with the right radio bands, I suggest taking a look at the $30 plans here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans For CDMA I believe Sprint and Verizon offer prepaid plans without contracts at around $50 for talk/data. The key is that IMO, a prepaid p…

AT&T is a company providing a service for a price. They are not scum. I've used AT&T for many years. I'm not always delighted with every policy - the now changed policy of refusing to unlock out of contract iPhones was a particular bone. However I have almost always been satisfied with the service and have had no problem contacting them to correct billing issues. Why people feel entitled to services at the price they…

> Your ungratefulness is likely to bring a well deserved meteor strike leaving you with fewer telecom options.

I was perfectly happy with my previous contract. If I'm being "ungrateful" for the privilege of getting charged extra for a service I didn't agree to, then I guess we have different definitions of gratefulness.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#87

Post by charlieflowers »

If the American people had any sense at all, we would drive AT&T out of business tomorrow. This story is no exception -- they live to do this kind of crap.

They boss the consumer around, but it is the consumer who truly holds all the power. Luckily for them, we consumers have been lulled into inattention, and somehow we put up with this crap.

Edit/Addition: We need to ban together, drive AT&T out of business, and serve notice to the corporate world that they fucking work for us, not the other way around.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#89

Post by wikwocket »

rogerbinns wrote: post #58
aharrison wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love T-Mobile, and not just for their sane plans and prices. They are also, you know, nice to me. Every time I have called their support they have been friendly, competent, and helpful. I have never gotten even 1 of 3 from any of the other carriers. Seriously T-Mobile, come up with more excuses for me to give you money.

> their support they have been friendly, competent, and helpful I've been a tmobile customer since 2007. In the middle of last year I took my line from a family plan into an individual plan. That involved speaking to 7 different people (several of whom contradicted each other as they then forwarded me to the next one) and being hung up on 3 times (as they messed up the transfers). Then the bills I started getting wer…

To piggy-back off this: My family left T-Mobile because we didn't get reception in the 1st floor of our house. The last monthly bill was for 8 days of service out of 31, so it should have been prorated, but wasn't - they charged us for the whole month, despite automatically detecting the date we ended service. The rep said that this was just how their "system" handled mid-month terminations.

My point is not that T-Mobile sucks, but that all cell providers will provide delightful fair service to many, and cheat and piss off some. Take it with a grain of salt when someone says that one company is "scum."

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#90

Post by learc83 »

easternmonk wrote: post #72
padmanabhan01 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telcos like AT&T are scum and they have a thousand shady ways to get money out of customers. But I don't think this is one of them. There is no way to use a smartphone without using data. Smartphone OSs use data in the background for so many things, for even voicemail. So, in this case, I think they are justified in adding a data plan. It is near impossible to use iOS or android without data, even when using them wit…

If you turn off the data your phone is as good as a dumb phone it can not use data at all unless you are on a wifi network.

> it can not use data at all unless you are on a wifi network.

Which is >95% of the time for me, and many people.

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