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sminman

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 6, 2006
96
0
Well we aren't going to have 300 page cell phone bills now!

Here's a picture:
L1020085.jpg


Sam
 

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Apr 12, 2001
63,197
30,140
AT&T Simplyfing Billing Statements



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
 

KJESPOKO

macrumors member
Aug 22, 2007
31
16
ATT free text`

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

macrumors regular
Jul 3, 2007
117
422
Ontario, Canada
Good to hear

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

macrumors 68020
Apr 29, 2006
2,242
51
Woodland Hills
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).
 

smccostlin

macrumors newbie
Jun 25, 2007
21
0
San Jose, CA
Poor Trees

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...
 

eagle33199

macrumors member
Mar 13, 2007
92
274
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

macrumors 68020
May 7, 2003
2,228
293
Saint Augustine, FL
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.
 

ToddW

macrumors 6502a
Feb 26, 2004
655
0
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

macrumors member
Jul 13, 2005
49
8
Chandler, AZ
My little canary trap

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

ben5959

macrumors regular
Aug 15, 2007
132
0
i got mine

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

Raidersmojo

macrumors regular
Jul 3, 2005
207
12
Burton michigan
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

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
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

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
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

macrumors 6502
Aug 3, 2007
373
108
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 :eek:

I'm a texting maniac...

Lumpy
 

jettredmont

macrumors 68030
Jul 25, 2002
2,731
328
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

macrumors regular
Jul 10, 2006
129
0
Ohio
Billing

I was interviewed by USA Today regarding my 52 page phone bill: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/phones/2007-08-14-iphone-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

macrumors 65816
Feb 9, 2007
1,127
39
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.
 
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