AT&T's Ralph de la Vega: My biggest pet peeve

Mr de la vega should secure DigitWireless' Fastap phones. There is limited distribution so far and has increased service providers data usage by 120%. Not only would AT&T be the first to be a major distributor of the Fastap phones but would increase their ARPU as well.

Talk about Pet Peeves! Let me tell you about my total surprise after activiting 2 I-Phones on 2 of the 3 lines I had on my family plan at Christmas. Facts - My family plan had 3 phone with unlimited texting for 29.99 per month for the texting feature only. ATT sales, marketing, and activation said you could keep your existing plan when you activated the I-Phones, but you would pay an additional 20.00 per month which included 200 text messages per month for each I-Phone and you would be able to keep your existing family plan (which by the way already included unlimited text messaging for 29.99 per month.)

What they did not say, advertise, or comment on was that the same unlimited message plan using I-Phones would be an additional 30.00 per month to have the same thing regarding unlimited text messages that I had before.

The bill showed up. The 29.99 went away, charged over 50.00 plus for messages over the 200 per I-phone and 3rd regular phone. Nobody at ATT mentioned this during activation on either I-phone. I was not indicated on their web sales hype or anywhere else.

Big surprise: Basically unlimited messages cost substantially more on an I-phone than they do on regular service plans on any other phone even though you are not getting any additional features or benefits. Also, there is no disclosure of this fact or what is going to happen with your old service other than sales materials and all other department CSR's that customers talk with specifically tell you that you can keep your existing plan. They only say that I-phones only ad 20.00 per month on top of your existing plan.

I wonder how many ATT customers who had family plans and converted to I-Phones got the same surprise? In my case 59.99 per month for unlimited texting versus the 29.99 I was paying the previous month. The price for all texting packages should be the same regardless of what type of phone you have. This is the way it was before I-Phone.

I am sure that had ATT disclosed this fact, their I-Phone sales would have been negatively affected due to undisclosed gouging of long term customers. Definitely acting like a monopoly and I am convinced it was intentional.

Please forward this to Ralph De La Vega and let him know that his longest term loyal customers have significant Pet Peeves about his company. Also let him know that when cable companies did this type of thing in the 80's - the US Government came down on them hard calling them (Negative Billing Options)and the cable companies had to issue refunds to all of its customers and was warned to never do this again or else!

Frustrated in Alabama

Dear Frustrated in Alabama,
That is why you have to have a person minding the store. You see when companies get big - almost behemoth size. This is what happens. Those folks at the FCC allowed this great telecommunications - land grab - to happen with no end in sight. Verizon is soon to get bigger with the addition of Alltel. Let's see if your cell phone bill goes lower with this acquisition. The bigger they get - the more phoney baloney occurrs. A while ago, I read a comment. The person wrote that they didn't mind paying a lot for a company that had a superior network. (For the most part I can agree with that!)But, in the last few years. The horror stories are growing in numbers. You know they love having Sprint in the news. Well if you look at the complaints at the other companies - Most of it has to do with billing and overcharging. You hear a lot about them not disclosing prices and certain requirements. But lots of suscribers let this slide because they offer great service or have a superior network. Another reason - customers feel helpless and have to write the PSC of their state when they can't get the satisfaction they need or their problem isn't resolved or they feel they get lost in the size of the company. It is going to get worse before it gets better. You see Dish Network lost 25,000 suscribers. I suspect the economy and competition from cable and most likely telco tv are the culprits. This is going to be the next round of headaches for the competing services. Verizon said when Fios is introduced in new territories that prices eventually go down. They didn't say their prices go down. I remember when they offered Fios internet in the Hudson Valley a few months ago - they raised their rates for Fios internet and Fios TV in their other service territories. Guess what? We didn't get even enjoy Fios and they raised the rates. So whos fooling whom??? It seems like they are winning and we are losing. Time will tell........