At&t Wireless At&t Throttles my data on 2nd day of billing cycle, won't restore speeds, still took my money for UNLIMITED DATA, I can't pull ANY data!

5th of Jan, 2012 by User347060

At&t marketed and sold me my first ihpone in June of 2009. They REQUIRED at the point of sale that iphone onwers on their network add a data package - they suggested the "unlimited data" for $30. I bought it. Now, 3 iphone upgrades and 3 years later I'm still on the "unlimited data" plan BUT my data was throttled on the 3rd day of my billing cycle this month for "excessive use." Isn't "excessive use" on an "unlimited plan" a paradox? At&t cites their TOS (which I'm not in violation of), fair use clause, and binding arbitration to assert that: 1. They can throttle my data at any time at their sole discretion for as long as they like down to any speed they like WHILE THEY STILL ADVERTISE THEMSLEVES AS THE FASTEST NETWORK AROUND - they slowed me down to edge speeds so that the iphone 4 they sold me can only make calls and send/receive txt messages. 2. Consumers have no legal recourse and others in my situation and myself cannot form a class action suit because of the binding arbitration we agreed to in our contracts. Well, I say it's high time these giant conglomerates get two points: 1. NO contract is iron clad and if it's found that At&t's contract is overly vauge and one sided, allowing At&t to abuse the customer and provides no protection for the consumers, or it's found that their contract violates one of the 100s of local, state, or federal consumer protection laws (like the fact that data allotment on phone plans are supposed to be disclosed AT THE POINT OF SALE, and since there was not a set AMOUNT of data disclosed and no amount of data or threshold still has been disclosed that the plan is UNLIMITED, so titled) it can and will be found null, void, or otherwise unenforceable in a court of law. 2. Adding a "binding arbitration" clause or any other verbage or rules that At&t's panel of self serving attorneys and higher ups can come up with and burrying that language deep within a TOS or contract the consumer becomes beholden to that At&t has a right to change constantly IN NO WAY WAIVES ANY OF THE RIGHTS GUARANTEED TO ME BY THE LAWS OF THIS STATE OR COUNTRY. At&t's binding arbitration clause has been TOSSED OUT by federal judges before with the result being that At&t had to pay out to a class action settlement they thought they would be imune from and IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. Basically the TOS, fair use clause and binding arbitration are not shields wich At&t can hide behind while they fleece and abuse consumers...contrary to what they make think! Furthermore, At&t refuses (after calling in to CS every single day since 11/21/2011, writing the CEO and President of At&T Randall Stephens, and having conversations with At&t's throttling department and conversations with Dawn at the office of the president) to disclose what my data allotment is and what threshold I must stay under to NOT get throttled. Basically, At&t is all too happy to take the $300 a month I pay for my account, my $30 for my unlimited data, then they hold me accountable to an IMAGINARY threshold of data that I can download under my unlimited data plan and PENALIZE ME on the 3rd day of my billing cycle for crossing this threshold that they absolutely REFUSE to define. It's January 6, 2012 and my data will be throttled until my billing cycle starts over on January 25th. So I have a $800 iphone 4 that can do NOTHING but make calls and send/receive txts. At&t sold me this iphone 4, and the 3 iphones I purchased before this one...they made money off selling me those phones, they continue to make money off me monthly, but they are not providing unlimited data to my phone. Just to set the record straight: I'm not in violation of ANY of their TOS, I'm not tethering or connecting my phone to any other devices or streaming my data over any other devices, my phone is not jailbroken nor does it have any unauthorized or unlicensed applications, operating systems, or programs. I'm not using it to run a superconductor from my living room! It's a regular iphone 4 that I use in a very normal way... Pandora, Netflix, Youtube. At&t claims that my data use is excessive, that I'm in this magical threshold called "the top 5%" - yet the refuse to disclose if that top 5% is calculated regional, state, local, nation wide, or worldwide. Also, the "top 5%" is a MOVING TARGET that will shrink every month as there will always be a top 5% of X to penalize and as user's are throttled their collective amount of data and thus the top 5% of that figure will shrink - thus allowing At&T to continue to collect their same $30/month for UNLIMITED DATA and advertise themselves as the fastest network around while providing the consumer's who are tied to them via contracts and early termination fees LESS service at a REDUCED quality, placing the state of wireless service in DEGREDATION instead of improvement. I might like to add that they are strangleholding this transfer of data and access to the internet over an infrastructure that was built by MY tax dollars and fees to wireless carreirs - an infastructure that is currently held up by my tax dollars and fees! Also, access to the internet has been declared a HUMAN RIGHT by the United Nations and some countries have already adopted policies also declaring internet access a human right...so why does At&t get to constrict the flow of internet (a human right) over a network and infrastructure that my money helped build and then deny me access to data transfer speeds they continue to advertise and make available to OTHER At&t cusomters? Furthermore, At&t's calculation and reporting of consumer's data usage is currently the subject of an open court case in California as it relates to "phantom data usage." The claimaint realized they were being charged for an amount of data that they could not possibly have used...So they filed suit and their attorney's purchased $80,000 worth of data using devices and measured their ACTUAL USAGE VS what At&t reported they used and billed them for. On average it was off by as much as 20% and ALWAYS in At&t's favor and was off by as much as 300% in some cases. So the veracity of At&t's claim that I am an excessive user or that I am in this magical top 5% or how much the top 5% even really use is all under speculation. In addition to all this, At&t isn't nearly as concerned about the alleged "data crunch" as they claim to be...The FCC will even tell you that we are currently in a spectrum SURPLUS of 275 mhz, and they are freeing up another 500 mhz over the next 10 years. Not to mention that congestion over this specific network would be GREATLY reduced if Wifi were made a public utility and provided by states and government FOR FREE -it's so cheap that most businesses offer it to their customers for free already. But this patchwork of free wifi from business to business is not enough to cover users...it needs to be free and available nationwide. Guess who lobbies against making wifi a public utility forcing MORE users to rely on the mhz spectrum and 3G and 4G networks? At&t see's those 775 mhz and the dollar signs that will roll in once they force their remaining unlimited data users on to their NEW AND AMAZINGLY, INSANELY EXPENSIVE TIERED PLANS where At&t gets $10 MONTHLY FOR EVERY SINGLE GB THAT FLOWS ACCROSS THAT ADDITIONAL 775 MHZ of spectrum AND the already existing spectrum they are using... To sum things up, At&t gets to continue advertising their services and making $$$ off all those data sucking smart phones and tablets and signing up new customers all the while claiming they don't have the network to service their EXISTING long term customers (I've been an At&t Wirless customer for nearly 10 years). They get to single handedly make an arbitrary decision to fundamentally change my data service over the device they sold me under the plan they forced me to purchase... And for anyone who says to just leave... At&t has that covered as well... I've already called and confirmed that I would have to pay an early termination fee of over $1,000 AND let's say I did go to another carrier... At&t has already tried to purchase T-Mobile and they bought Cingular (who I originally signed up with) long ago... They will just sop up one carreir after another until their's NO CHOICE and no competition and we'll all be groaning under the weight of their abusive, deceptive, and downright dishonorable policies!

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