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iPhone User Awarded $850 in Judgment Against AT&T Over Throttling

Hopefully AT&T will put and end to this soon. Require every unlimited user to change to a tiered plan when upgrading... PERIOD. Should have been that way for the 4s.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

Look out for future forced upgrades on teired data plans when you buy a smartphone.
 
troop231 said:
It's inevitable, I mean could we really imagine ATT still allowing unlimited plans 10 years from now? Hell, they'll probably throttle at 1GB by then.
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I figured it would end when LTE rolled out to the iPhone anyway.
 
There are no “good” US carriers in my view. I have no problems with AT&T coverage (weak-signal spots in my area are few and shared be Verizon) and their customer service via 611 has been excellent. They also have good data speed, and I can look stuff up online while I’m on a call. 2GB a month has been plenty for me, luckily (throttling IS pretty obnoxious I agree). And I almost never use SMS so my monthly bill is pretty cheap.

But the main reason I’m satisfied with A&T wireless? I think it’s by comparison with their abysmal DSL department!
 
This is nothing more than harassment by AT&T. If they really have bandwidth problems in a given local then throttling every user in that area (maybe slow each user down by one or two percent) would be how to solve this and would be seen as fair.
 
Any lawyers here?

Any lawyers here?

I understood no contract can work to waive people's rights, such as this clause mentioned in the post above " AT&T's subscriber contract prohibits class action or jury trials"
 
"sales manager representing AT&T in the case has argued that the carrier reserved the right to "modify or cancel" or cancel customer contracts if their usage is adversely affecting the company's network capabilities"

Well, unfortunately, for us users, it would cost hundreds of dollars to modify or cancel the contract. We should be able to cancel our contract with AT&T if the changes to the services are no longer acceptable for us.
 
xlii said:
This is nothing more than harassment by AT&T. If they really have bandwidth problems in a given local then throttling every user in that area (maybe slow each user down by one or two percent) would be how to solve this and would be seen as fair.
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Why on earth should one have to be throttled when they pay for overages?
 
rusty2192 said:
So where did the $850 value come from? Over a 24 month contract, that would be ~$35/month. The plan is $30/month and they have only been throttling for less than a year. Or can you get punitive damages in small claims court?
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The judge awarded him $85 a month for the remaining 10 months on his contract. I have about 20 months on my contract =)
 
WannaGoMac said:
Any lawyers here?

I understood no contract can work to waive people's rights, such as this clause mentioned in the post above " AT&T's subscriber contract prohibits class action or jury trials"
Click to expand...

They have been hit with class action suits before there is a way around that clause can't remember the legal term for it
 
rusty2192 said:
So where did the $850 value come from? Over a 24 month contract, that would be ~$35/month. The plan is $30/month and they have only been throttling for less than a year. Or can you get punitive damages in small claims court?
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I'm not sure but the judge gave him $85.00 for each of the 10 months the plaintiff had remaining on his contract.

The plaintiff was asking for $10,000 dollars.
 
xlii said:
This is nothing more than harassment by AT&T. If they really have bandwidth problems in a given local then throttling every user in that area (maybe slow each user down by one or two percent) would be how to solve this and would be seen as fair.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of chain gym centers that sign up more members than they can handle.

It always ticks me off to see an overcrowded gym with no available machine to workout on.

These companies only care about getting more $$$ and not deal with problems like this.
 
arn said:
Apparently AT&T's subscriber agreement prohibits class action suits. not sure if that's enforceable, but it's there.

arn
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Enforceable. And upheld by the Supreme Court in the last year if I recall correctly. Might not be specifically ATT&T's clause, but general disclaimers of class actions.

But I might be confused. I've been studying for the NY Bar for about 3 months now and my brain...hurts.
 
valkraider said:
When users get throttled - they should use the RootMetrics coverage app and start running tests.

When the throttled user's slow as molasses data speeds start bringing down the provider's scores then maybe the provider will care more.

Data speed wars are ramping up and having your scores hammered would hurt...
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Good idea! I'll for sure do it if I get throttled.
 
And the best thing is that he probably didn't even need to pay a lawyer to sue AT&T in small claims court.
 
Last year I had three dropped calls in a row with ATT. I called my wife and said I'm heading for the Verizon store.

I paid 800 ETF to get out of ATT contract and gladly paid it...
 
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