Is Limited Unlimited Service False Advertising?
from the define-unlimited dept
Just last month, we wrote about people getting kicked off Verizon Wireless' high speed EVDO network for using the "unlimited" network too much -- raising the question of how you could use too much of something that was being advertised as unlimited? Glenn Fleishmann, as per usual, has done a nice job looking into the limited unlimited plans offered by the big three mobile operators -- though, Sprint's terms and services are apparently not readily available. Still, the big issue isn't really being discussed: isn't having your marketing team proudly selling "unlimited" service, while your lawyers limit it very much in the extremely fine print, a clear-cut case of false advertising? The operators and their supporters say they need to limit use to protect the network. That may be absolutely true -- but, if that's the case, then they shouldn't advertise it as unlimited. If they can't actually deliver unlimited service, they shouldn't be selling it.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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agree
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It's like "Lite" ....
BTW, I just went through the same disappointments with Real Networks' "Unlimited" Rhapsody service, which manages to have quite a few limitations.
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Re: It's like
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No Subject Given
I guess like the article above states, there are limits to things being advertised as unlimited.
About the time that the company started playing these games is when Pacbell began offering DSL to my area. I had them install to my home within that month and have been a happy DSL subscriber with them ever since.
Doing a quick search on the previous ISP, it seems as though "The Loop" (Loop.com) somewhere down the line got bought up by Earthlink - either this, or the company was going out of business and sold all it's customers to Earthlink... either way, doesn't matter now, since I am happy with where I arrived to.
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Re: agree
If you have nights @ weekends starting at 7pm and ending at 7pm (not terribly likely these days as it is usually 9pm to 7am), then there are only 6480 minutes covering that period:
Sunday & Saturday: 48h
Mon-Fri, 12a-7a, 7p-12p: 12h * 5d = 60h
60h+48h = 108h. 108h * 60m = 6480m.
So, you are missing 1480 minutes per week, or exactly 24h.
Do you sleep more than 24h a week? That's a little less than 3.5h per night.
I don't see this as a an issue. If you spend every waking moment of every week on the phone and sleep less than 3.5 hours per day, then you have a legitimate beef.
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Re: agree
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MSN
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Unlimited?
Except of course this was until you downloaded 500Mb, then your connection was slowed to 64Kb.
The price was per week not per month.
You had to sign up other services for 12 months, 24 to get the free install.....
Seems it was only the conditions that were 'Unlimited'.
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Unlimited???
I much rather be given a limit than have this gray area and have a fear that if I reach this unknown destination I'll be kicked off from my service.
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The Unlimited Game
Recently people have been disconnected from cable/dsl ISPs for exceeding 200 gigabyte usage on their unlimited cable service. At 5MBps, 200 gigabytes is less than 4 days of continuous transfer. ISPs want to advertise unlimited access to all this high quality content, then turn around and limit your access to them. I can blow a gigabyte of transfer in a few hours just by downloading a linux distro and playing some games.
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So where are the lawyers?
In order to bring suit against them, would I need to sign on, ignore the fine print, then claim the big "unlimited" was false? In other words, would I need to be harmed in some way to make a claim?
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THEY TRY TO RIP PEOPLE OFF
i know i have dile up so i figure "12.95, that cant be much more then im paying right now right" so i call
i know it says "AS LOW AS" but i thought it would be at least in that ball park right? WRONG!! the guy quotes me 34.95. Now thats what i call false advertizing!
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I know this thread is nearly dead, but let's do something about this. email me if you want to help. Once we get enough people together, we can contact the eff and start a nonprofit ISP that can't be competed with by anything but lack of knowledge. Like Ubuntu Linux vs Windows. Maybe even create an open ISP project to start many of them across the world with the same general properties.
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Unlimited limit
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