Ever notice how some companies enjoy punishing you for being their customer?

Admittedly, I am boiling mad right now. ATT does it again. After merely 3 months of using a cellular hotspot at 15G/month, I quickly realized that just trying to do normal daily activities was eating up my plan so quickly that I'd have to go sit at some coffee shop to keep my usage down. So I thought to myself: "Well, if I get Comcast cable to install just internet service ($39.99/month in my area), then I can turn around and reduce my data plan to just 6G/month and save $70/month. Not so. As you reduce your data plan costs, your dependent device costs go up. So for a 6G plan, it was really only $40/month cheaper, not $70. Seems to me that device charges should not change. In fact, those using less data should be charged less, NOT MORE for connecting a device.

Thank you for skewing me, ATT. All you are doing is skewing yourself in the end because I will dump you ASAP. (Yes, I toned down my post, instead of using scr*wing me.)

 

More evidence that carriers (all of them apparently) do NOT have their customers' best interest at heart

 

@efparri: Yes, but we're not talking tangible product here. It doesn't cost the wireless carriers any more to provide less data. They aren't boxing, labeling, or ad-designing data like detergent companies are boxing, getting shelf space and many other tangible product-related processes. sorry, but i don't buy into your logic on this one.

 

@music4praise: Hmm. Well, let's see here. Start with the facts: I used to work for ATT in their IT organization. So I know the company more than many consumers. I started as a wireless consumer in 1994, so examining the rate plans is something I've been doing for 20 years. Now the embarrassing admission: When I changed to the data-centric plan, a set of events took place that forced me to make a quick (and slightly uninformed) decision. So I'll accept your observation that I didn't do my homework. At the time that I accepted the original data-centric plan, it "seemed" like a good idea. But slowly I began to realize that the sales force at my local ATT store suckered me into a bad decision. That's when I went back and reviewed my options -- I wanted to cut back my data plan. And that is when I realized what a jerk ATT is with their plans. Tides will turn.

 

@robbailey: I'm not here to bash ATT, but I do feel the fee schedules are unnecessarily inflated. Even though I did use ATT as the example, there are several other companies in various industries that are guilty of punishing their customers. I've heard NY has historically been a poor service area for ATT. I don't know what the actual issues are getting signal in that area.