AT&T Wireless is gouging customers on international roaming charges
I've written before about AT&T Wireless' terrible international roaming rates for the iPhone. Well, imagine my surprise to discover that its roaming rates for its wireless cards is even worse. How much worse? Consider the bill I received from AT&T today:
(Credit: Matt Asay)Yes, that's really $1520.76 for one month's usage of my wireless card. But the shocking thing is that $1450.19 of it came from using the card for under three hours to pull down a total of 96 megabytes of data. That's roughly $15 per megabyte. What a bargain!
Given that my calling plan covers the US and Canada, I assumed my data plan would, too. Nope. I pay $59.99 per month for an "unlimited" data plan on my wireless card. It's surprising just how limited that "unlimited" plan is.
AT&T Wireless is gouging its customers (and no, I'm not the only one - this hapless fellow got dinged $6,000 by AT&T for using his phone in Mexico, while this iPhone user got hit with $3,000). $1,450 for a 96 megabytes is unconscionable. It bears no rational relation to AT&T's own costs of delivering the service.
UPDATE: TechCrunch has data that indicates AT&T's text messaging rates aren't so great, either. How about $1,310 per megabyte?
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
They said that too many people are leaving them and they want to make the users happy! So if you don't get a sympathetic rep hang up and call again!
As for the guy that got hit with the 6 grand bill I would love to know what happened to him! Commodore from AskTheAdmin.com did they settle this for you?
This is Rogers Canada rates for data transfer. ANY customer in Canada, on GSM gets these rates. Rogers charges AT&T, AT&T passes it along.
See the iPhone rates (only country in the world without unlimited data plans!) for more of the same gouging...
And why would you assume data is covered in Canada? I have never seen a plan, in either direction, between any countries where it was.
And as for unlimited data on the iPhone for international roaming, it doesn't exist, if that's what you're suggesting.
It is in no way AT&Ts fault that you did not read the contract and know everything there is to know about your plan. As a consumer you are to be informed and if your not - you pay the price. There is an plan that is unlimited in the US and 100MB in Canada for $119.99 per month. Maybe you should have went to AT&T before you left and asked if there was an international plan. Also there is an international plan for $25 per month that will allow you to have 25MB international roaming in 20+ countries. ALSO unlimited in the USA and 100MB in 20+ countries is 139.99 per month. Now you know and hopefully you wont make the mistake again. I don't feel sorry for anyone that don't choose to inform themselves.
More features are on its way, which will make this even more compelling to use.
Plus, AT&T has to pay the cell phone companies back for YOUR usage on THEIR network. I can assure you with 100% accuracy that AT&T is not pocketing all of the money that you are being billed. They get a bill on the usage you incurred. They have to pay that bill back to the carrier overseas.
Sorry for the rant...I just hate that everyone give the carriers grief when it's not ALWAYS their fault, know what your plans are with AT&T before you go off to Africa and download "Gone with the Wind".
+ to Onesuite
I only use my mobile for local calls or in emergency but usually use Onesuite for long distance to avoid high charges whether roaming or not.
@betabaul: Everyone is fed up with ridiculous overseas charges thats why. People get confused with "unlimited" plans but in reality its very limited.
Some feedback on the group's comments thus far...
@jjjjoooonnnnn - your statements are unfortunately not true. Rogers Canada does not charge this rate for GSM data usage, AT&T does. AT&T's rates for data usage outside the US are just under $20/mb except for Canada where they charge just under $15/mb. These rates do not differ depending on the carrier you pick up while roaming internationally, they are set by AT&T and are ALWAYS higher than their charge-back rate.
@Matt Asay - be cautious about your iPhone data rates while outside of the US. it is very likely that you have not yet received the bill for your data usage while you where on your trip to Canada. I've seen data bills come in from my phone dated 6 weeks after my voice calls were billed. AT&T's official policy is that it may take up to 60 days plus the possible 30 day lag in your billing cycle for you to get charged for international usage.
@blackjack22 - although I generally agree that 'buyer beware and aware' holds true for using someone's services and then being billed, I think the point here is more that AT&T is being unreasonable with a service which is somewhat of a commodity. I would liken this scenario to a cross-country trip in your car. you stop to get gas and pull into a gas station in a state you've never visited before. after filling up you get a bill for $600 - that is 15 gal at $40 instead of $4. yes, you should have looked at the little price screen before filling up, but you didn't and you're upset. The point is not that you didn't look at the price, but that you were forced to pay that price if you wanted the gas and that $40 per gal is just unreasonable. that gas station only paid $4 for the gas, just like everyone else. Same goes for AT&T. You are stuck with them via your contract and can not switch to another carrier just because you are going away for a week. They don't pay anywhere near $20/mb for that service, and further no other carrier charges their customers even close to what AT&T does. In fact, when I had T-Mobile last year, data rates in Canada, the UK and western Europe were included in my unlimited plan.
@blackjack22 - regarding your comments on the pre-buying data packages from AT&T prior to traveling, this is true, though there is 1 caveat you are missing. Whatever package you purchase, you are forced to buy 3 times over. Yes, this does sound a bit strange, but let me try to explain it to you the way the AT&T representative explained it to me. The first time you buy the package is to cover the period of time you were actually traveling in the foreign country, ie month 1. The second time you buy the package is during month 2, the 'waiting period' for AT&T to make sure they have received all the usage charges for you trip from the 3rd party provider in your foreign country. The third time you buy the package is for the month in which AT&T actually bills you for the usage, ie, the 3rd month. Now you may be thinking, that's ridiculous, and you would be correct. But the truth of this scenario is that AT&T will not honor the package rate unless you had the package at the time the charges where incurred AND at the time the charges were billed. These 2 times are generally 60+ days apart. So indeed, you could buy a rate plan, but plan on paying triple. If you'd like some clarification on this, call AT&T and ask. I'm sure you laugh at least a couple of times on the call.
@betapaul - although you are correct that AT&T has to pay for your usage on another carrier's network, these rates are generally set at cost plus a standard profit. This is true for all carriers in the US and most foreign, because in many places these services are regulated and for others, they expect the discounted structure in return. It provides flexibility and competitiveness for the carriers to offer their customers services outside of their home market. The simple point is that you are incorrect in assuming that the majority of this exorbitant rate comes from the carrier billing AT&T; the majority is AT&T's ridiculous markup and gauging policy for access outside the US.
Unfortunately for many reading this, the problem is that Cingular's purchase of AT&T Wireless (completely different company than the normal AT&T conglomerate know as T on the NYSE) has made them large enough that they can start introducing policies which are uncompetitive and not in the consumer's best interest without having to worry about attrition. The only message to send that will change these policies is leaving for another carrier and pointing out the reason as you leave AT&T. The sad part is that it will take additional consumer gauging and a long while before enough people pick up and leave for it to make any difference.
Matt, great piece, albeit short. I wish more articles like this hit main-stream media to educate consumers on the policy of some large corporations to hold their customers hostage while they take their wallets for ride. How about a follow-up? For me, I leave my AT&T phone at home when I leave the US.
I had to respond. If you look at http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/26/engadget-labs-the-best-mobile-broadband-carrier-in-america/ you will see that AT&T does have the highest data rates for international roaming of the big 4 in the U.S. although not by a wide margin. They also have plans that significantly reduce the international roaming cost that the others do not. The point is that it is not just AT&T. Looking at the numbers pointed out by Engagdet at the website above, it almost looks like price fixing.
Since Verizon is the largest cellular company in the U.S., although not by much, I don't think that AT&T could get away with this if their chief competitor (who is larger) doesn't do similar things. Also, AT&T Mobility is fully owned subsidiary of ATT, Inc.and has been since December of 2006.
Although I believe that all the major U.S. carriers are gouging consumers, just rotating from carrier to carrier is not an effective means to influence change.
SImilar to what is happening with mortgages, the law needs to force ALL carriers to be more explicit on what is included and not included in data and voice plans. And although I think there needs to be more responsibility on the consumer to do his homework, there needs to be more explicit clarity in these contracts as well.
I'm not a proponent of regulation in this industry as it was deregulation that significantly improved the telephone service and cost. You may not recall that you used to rent your phone from the phone company and were stuck with their price for long distance which was significantly more than it is today. Similarly, the cell phone cost has come down significantly from where it was 20 years ago due to competition. I do think that the cell companies should be reviewed for price fixing, and exhorbitant pricing practices such as discussed in the other posts.
This is outright fraud and if ATT is really charging these prices to customers and forcing them to pay there needs to be a class action lawsuit. There is no warning on the ATT site to power off your iPhone if you aren't using it and there is no warning on the Apple site to tell customers they must take steps to keep the iPhone from roaming on its own. You can accuse us of not being informed and that's true. We had no idea this was going on and not being international travelers we were naive about how the iPhone operates overseas. Our normal data usage for a week is 5 MB, not 500 MB as ATT claims we used in Mexico. I did check the roaming rates before I left and for a text message here and there, and I figured I'd get a few roaming charges, but not $19,382 dollars worth.
ATT needs to know that consumers are not going to pay these prices and maybe Apple needs to look for a new service provider for the iPhone.
I agreed to a national data plan (period). I DID NOT agree to being charged 25x the rate for int' data! It is SIMPLY a BAD BUSINESS PRACTICE. AT&T really NEEDS to change this practice.
Other companies will simply not assume the user is RICH enough to pay and will not provide service.. and to those carriers I say THANK YOU for your common sense approach to billing policy.
Dealing with my $2500 bill this month is a nightmare. Frankly, if AT&T doesn't make this right; I will NEVER buy another AT&T product or service again.
Again, not an issue about the contract (I'm sure we all should ready every legal document we agrree to with software, etc - we all have THAT kind of TIME) BUT the contract does not make this type of business practice right.
Actually one line item on the bill was $1,800. This is such a gouge. I have searched for a class action to join, but I haven't found one. If there isn't already a class action going, how do we start one?
I am all for a the class action lawsuit. This is unreasonable and gross. I really want to understand how these charges a justified.
Back in the day when I had Verizon service, the service would ALERT me if i was trying to do roaming. It is apparent from this string and from the response I got on my call today with AT&T that this is a conscious decision by AT&T to gouge customers. They must have had hundreds if not THOUSANDS of calls on this point to date. They know this is happening and flipping out their customers. They amounts of money are staggering - they can seriously harm people's financial standing.
If anyone has an idea of how to approach this, or has been successful in negotiating with AT&T on this subject, please post or contact me. I could use some help!
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could fight this absolute BS.
They should be embarassed at the legalized robbery they are getting away with.
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by kiki0725
June 10, 2009 3:27 PM PDT
- I just travel outside the u.s actually to honduras, I used the internet no more than 30 mins or so I accessed youtube, I have att unlimited internet and text mesaging sometimes my internet worked and sometimes it didnt i when to the att and asked how much would i be charged they did really did not tell me anything.can someone help me??? please reply
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