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AT&T Sued Over Alleged Overbilling for iOS Device Data Usage

This totally happened to me! When I switched from the iPhone 1st gen to the iPhone 4 I went with the 2GB plan plus tethering. Half way through the billing cycle, my data use jumped up to over the 2GB limit (I had been watching my use close so I would not go over.) One day I was near 1GB (close to half use @ half-way through the cycle). Then the next day I was over 2GB! This happened over night. Sure enough, when I looked at the detailed use on ATT's website there were erroneousness data packages sent between 1am and 4am (I was very much asleep) Each data packet was around 200MB each! When I called ATT could not explain these data spikes. I had not changed any applications so they couldn't blame it on an application. After working my way up the chain of command, I finally spoke with a manager of some sort that said they could not explain where the data was coming from, but they would just give me the unlimited plan back and it wouldn't matter where the data came from. I haven't watched my data as close since then, but I notice that the bill always has a higher data amount than the data recording within the iPhone preferences states. I really want to switch to Verizon now!
 
MacAddict1978 said:
Sign me up. I've gotten data overages consistently... and I'm on wi-fi almost all the time!!!

You can also go into your account and view usage. The iphone dials out every night around 2am all by itself... even when you turn it off...
Click to expand...

Actually it doesn't. It's the exact opposite. The iPhone hangs up every night at 2am, and when that cellular data connection closes, the AT&T accounting and billing system adds up all the background data it used in the previous 24 hours. Even periodic checking to make sure there was no push data or no app store updates (etc.) can send or receive a small bit of data. That adds up.

Best way to check this is with your own 3G microcell. Put both that microcell and your wifi access point behind a firewall capable of logging all network traffic, keep the phone near only that microcell, and you will see exactly when any data is transferred to/from the phone, maybe to whom as well.
 
wPod said:
This totally happened to me! When I switched from the iPhone 1st gen to the iPhone 4 ... I really want to switch to Verizon now!
Click to expand...
The thing that changed is the Apple phone model, but you assume the problem is with ATT? Why? Smartphones are complicated little computers, and it's far more likely that it actually was transmitting the data, than AT&T was trying to cheat you. Apple makes a lot of great products, but they aren't infallible.
 
Tailpike1153 said:
Does anyone know if any non-Apple devices have suffered the same oddities? Everything always seems to happen on the iPhone? Glass breaking. Antenna breaking. Data getting sucked up by NSA/CIA/FBI/GOOGL/insert acronym. Overbilling for data.

Seems particularly odd that nothing bad ever happens on other handsets.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You just don't hear about the others as much because nobody cares. iPhones grab headlines and hit counts. :rolleyes:
 
To avoid these overages, and because I'm a cheap tightwad, I disable everything at night - push notifications, data / 3G network usage, etc, etc... Most times I even just put it in Airplane Mode, but I don't turn it off because I use the alarms.

There was specifically one night where I got the message of using 65% of my data... blah blah, I've been there before. I had turned on Airplane Mode, which uses NO DATA, and went to sleep.

The next morning, I went to flick off Airplane Mode, and found that I got the 90% warning, and in addition, the overage notification, telling me I'm being charged for my extra usage. WHAT??

Of course I went in and swapped to the 2gb plan, and saved some off of the overall added price, but the fact of the matter is, what the heck used Data to push me from 65% at midnight, to over my 100% the next morning at (I'd guess) 8:00am.

I went from 0 to 65% usage in 4 weeks, and then jumped from 65% to more than 100% overnight? I don't think so... Even with everything on, I'm at my house. My house where I have an Apple Airport... that provides me with Wifi... Why would it have used more than a few KB of data in the first place if I'm using my Wifi?!
 
I think what should happen is for some tech blog/journalist pointing this out and put Apple's name too to put some negative PR towards Apple. Maybe, just maybe, that will push Apple into selling the freaking iPhone unlocked in the US, free from AT&T's (and other carriers') grubby hands once and for all.
 
oldwatery said:
I wonder if they are doing the same for calls? My usage has remained stable for years. In fact I have always had hundreds of unused minutes each month. In the past 6 months I have been charged for exceeding my minutes every billing cycle. I have tried to rationalize this but I cannot understand how I have all of a sudden almost doubled my minutes.
And just try to make any sense of the crazy bills. Bit like the tax system...there only to confuse you :confused:
Click to expand...

+1

Trying to go through their bills is ridiculous. The way their website info is set up, you don't even have a chance.
Billing account, foundation account, linked to main number etc. etc.

Einstein's head would be smoking:)
 
MarximusMG said:
I can't wait for the day when unlimited data as part of any smartphone plan is the standard which all major carriers adopt. As time progresses, we're using more and more data, not less. Why on earth would any consumer then be happy with tiered plans?
Click to expand...
Personally, I don't mind tiered plan as long as it's FAIR. 200MB/2GB in 2011 is NOT fair to the typical usage of modern smartphones. Heck, wireless carriers in countries like Singapore offer 15GB data allowance INCLUDING tethering on their cheapest iPhone plan. That shows you how backward US wireless market is.
 
For the past few months I have been tracking data usage on my iPhone plans and there is a lot of "chatter" on my iPhones from midnight to 5am... while my wife and I are asleep and our iPhones are plugged in syncing to our PMG5.

When I have tried to match up overnight emails and push notifications with the "chatter" time log, they DO NOT match up.

Now to be fair I'm only talking a few 100k here and the occasional >1MB there, but when I added them up I had ranges of 25-50MB in data usage that I was not responsible for. Bad things man.... Bad things...
 
KindredMAC said:
For the past few months I have been tracking data usage on my iPhone plans and there is a lot of "chatter" on my iPhones from midnight to 5am... while my wife and I are asleep and our iPhones are plugged in syncing to our PMG5.

When I have tried to match up overnight emails and push notifications with the "chatter" time log, they DO NOT match up.

Now to be fair I'm only talking a few 100k here and the occasional >1MB there, but when I added them up I had ranges of 25-50MB in data usage that I was not responsible for. Bad things man.... Bad things...
Click to expand...

first at&t takes a lot of small usage and combines them into a single line item of usage to make the bills smaller

and it's completely normal for the phone to talk to the towers, back to apple and if you have imap set up to poll mail servers. just because there is no mail doesn't mean it doesn't use any data when checking every hour or whatever your schedule is
 
KindredMAC said:
For the past few months I have been tracking data usage on my iPhone plans and there is a lot of "chatter" on my iPhones from midnight to 5am... while my wife and I are asleep and our iPhones are plugged in syncing to our PMG5.

When I have tried to match up overnight emails and push notifications with the "chatter" time log, they DO NOT match up.

Now to be fair I'm only talking a few 100k here and the occasional >1MB there, but when I added them up I had ranges of 25-50MB in data usage that I was not responsible for. Bad things man.... Bad things...
Click to expand...

Don't ask questions, do not continue with your inquiry. This is notion more than you imagination. Apple and AT&T would never do anything nefarious.
 
I routinely get hit with data charges (small amounts) on days where my iPhone never leaves my home WIFI connection. On my bill, @ 2am or so, there are a bunch of charges. I work from the house, so there is very limited times through the week where my phone would not be connected to the home WIFI network, and rely solely on 3G for data.
 
It happened to me....I had 37MB of data at about 2:30am, 2 weeks after my baby was born (on a work night, no less). So, besides the fact that I wouldn't be awake and on my phone long enough to accrue that much data with a new born around, I also always have WiFi on at home! I have called twice in regards to this and AT&T says that their charges are accurate...don't think so!!! Never got charge because I watched my data close enough to not go over, but VERY annoying. It will be interesting to see what comes of this.
 
This is right out of the ATT playbook.
And of course verizon wont be any better, because they are colluding.
"over regulation" is right out of the playbook of the parrot heads, but this is what happens when you have no regulation.
Collusion, bribery, corporate malfeasence.
I would like to see somebody write a book on the telcos.
Could make a fun movie too.
 
This was happening on my wifes iPhone 4. POsted here last month and ended up going to the Apple store where they replaced the phone. Damn thing was running through 50MB per day while left in a house with an active wifi network! We have hit the 200MB limit twice on her line (I have a grandfathered unlimited one) and she is scared to use the thing at this point for fear of going over. I'm not sure this is an ATT issue though - the iPhone should not be using 3G networks when in a wifi zone...
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

AT&T is about to get caught in a data lie.

Whether phones are using data on the middle of the night or the servers are simply catching up, it's misleading and wrong. Billing has to be fast and accurate to be enforced. People will sue.

Hey, look! They did!
 
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