AT&T Simplyfing Billing Statements

[sminman]

Well we aren't going to have 300 page cell phone bills now!

Here's a picture:


Sam

[MacRumors]

Multiple iPhone users report having received SMS messages from AT&T today stating the following:

AT&T free msg: We are simplifying your paper bill, removing itemized detail. To view all detail go to att.com/mywireless. still need full paper bill? call 611.

The move is likely in response to some users receiving extremely lengthy bills containing details of each phone, SMS, and data transaction (such as Katie's 53 page bill).

Article Link

[zombitronic]

Good. Although this is AT&T's err, it didn't complement Apple's A Greener Apple policy. Plus it was just damn annoying.

[KJESPOKO]

Just received my text at aout 1:00 MTN. I was also surprised with how many pieces of paper were in my first bill.

[CanadianGuy]

Anyone (or company) can screw up.

What really matters is how they handle it when they do, and AT&T seems to have realized there was a problem and are fixing it. What more can you ask for?

Now if only Apple will let us Canadians use the iPhone!

[poppe]

I received the text message as well. What I find weird is we are on a family plan. I do close to 2000 text messages a month and I use around 700 minutes alone per month, let alone the 2 other people on the plan, and yet our bill was only 8 pages (this is about on par with sprint).

[gdesalvo@umail.]

Originally Posted by zombitronic

Good. Although this is AT&T's err, it didn't complement Apple's A Greener Apple policy. Plus it was just damn annoying.

Call 611 and cut down a forest!

[smccostlin]

It just seemed like it was very wasteful for them to have done that in the first place... I can see where they might not have even thought about that, but that is kinda ridiculous... I have always been part of their e-statement program because I just throw away all those bills anyways...

[semperfimarine2]

Originally Posted by sminman

Well we aren't going to have 300 page cell phone bills now!

Here's a picture:


Sam

got this text when i finished updating to 1.0.2 and was putting all my music back. thats a very good thing. my recent bill was 50 pgs. just pointing out who i was texting to

[eagle33199]

Yup, just got the txt message, around 2:30 central time. This after i elected to go paperless after receiving my 50+ page bill over the weekend...

[mainstreetmark]

Originally Posted by smccostlin

It just seemed like it was very wasteful for them to have done that in the first place... I can see where they might not have even thought about that, but that is kinda ridiculous... I have always been part of their e-statement program because I just throw away all those bills anyways...

I don't care to dig up sources at the moment, but this has roots outside of AT&T. Somewhere there's a regulation that says the iPhone is a phone (unlike a blackberry, etc..) and therefore AT&T is required by law to state on the bill what you're being charged for. There is no logical reason that AT&T would agree to send people their phonebill in boxes, unless they HAD to. I'm sure it's taken this long to get the policy changed, or convince the govt that online detail is good enough.

[plumbingandtech]

Mine was only 5 pages.

[SirOmega]

Bah, I want itemized call detail, itemized txt detail, but no itemized data detail. Is that possible?

[tyson12zoll]

how many people got this message on their iPhones while reading this article? I did. Eerie

[ToddW]

i checked my iphone and saw that there was a text message waiting. i then checked my statement online and low and behold it was just like the old one i would get. i then paid my bill.

[matthiasgoodman]

Cool, they used the text I submitted. I know because I misspelled "simplifying". Thus the title "AT&T Simplyfing Billing Statements."

[ben5959]

yah i got mine at 1:34 central, but my bill was never long in the first place

[Raidersmojo]

Good. Although this is AT&T's err, it didn't complement Apple's A Greener Apple policy. Plus it was just damn annoying.

its actually better to use a lot of paper for the enviroment, the more paper you use the more trees you plant to make up for the paper being used

[nagromme]

Great news.

Now how many trees, how many gallons of fossil fuels, and how many tons of air pollution were expended up until now by AT&T's absurd policy of making itemized downloads--listed on paper!--the default for an unlimited Internet plan??

[mkrishnan]

Originally Posted by mainstreetmark

I don't care to dig up sources at the moment, but this has roots outside of AT&T.

Well, this issue must have come up with Blackberry users before iPhone users. T-Mobile's detailed billing has one line item per day listing the data volume transfered that day. So you get 1-2 pages detailing the entire month's data services, regardless of how much you use the data services. And they print it two-up essentially and on both sides of the sheet. Meaning that even a person who calls, SMS's, and uses data heavily will only have a 4-5 sheet detailed bill.

I'm surprised this wasn't blogged about more by Blackberry users or users of other AT&T data devices. AT&T did this to all data plans and not just iPhone ones, right?

(My first half month's Blackberry data usage was about 2MB/day, so I might not have had to get my bill in a box, but it would have been substantial, I think....)

[Lumpydog]

Got the Text Message message at 2:30 Eastern

Count me as one of the over-papered masses. My last Bill was over 60 pages

I'm a texting maniac...

Lumpy

[jonharris200]

Originally Posted by Raidersmojo

its actually better to use a lot of paper for the enviroment, the more paper you use the more trees you plant to make up for the paper being used

Ummm... I'm not even gonna argue with that one.

[jettredmont]

Originally Posted by SirOmega

Bah, I want itemized call detail, itemized txt detail, but no itemized data detail. Is that possible?

Exactly!

IMHO, there is a long-running campaign of cell providers not wanting to allow consumers to "double check" their call activity. For a long time it was nigh impossible to get individual calls detail such as we get with landline phones (so if the phone company says you went 20 minutes over your plan, there was no way to verify that, nor any way to figure out where you'd spent the majority of your cell call minutes).

This may not be intended as the same thing (bury the 20 phone calls in 600 pages of data packet records), but its effect is the same. Now, it seems the default will switch to the "old style" non-itemized bill, with the itemizations (ALL of them) put online.

Hardly an improvement. It's more a cost-saving measure so they don't spend $8 per customer to ship their phone bill in a box.

[kcroy]

I was interviewed by USA Today regarding my 52 page phone bill: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireles...one-bill_N.htm

AT&T allowed me to remove itemized billing from my mail bill and view itemization online. Works for me.

I read some bills were incredibly huge. Mine at 52 pages was too much to handle and it made absolutely no sense. I called AT&T. The first operator knew less than I did, the second was very helpful and fixed some problems I had and made necessary changes for me.

AT&T and Apple think differently. The latter "thinks different" the former doesn't. AT&T could learn quite a bit from Apple in regards to billing, marketing, service, and reliability.

I really like my iPhone, but AT&T still has some work to do before I'll be putting their decal on my auto.

[zombitronic]

Originally Posted by Raidersmojo

its actually better to use a lot of paper for the enviroment, the more paper you use the more trees you plant to make up for the paper being used

If so, this must just be some environmental good-guy badge policy agreement. This is fine, and a good policy, but wouldn't you agree that it's actually better for the environment to use LESS paper and and also plant trees?

Look, even in the case of for every 99 trees you cut down, you have to plant 100 in their place, you'd still win by not cutting down 99 trees and planting 1.