If You Sell An Unlimited Plan, Why Are You Telling Me It Will Be Limited?
from the truth-in-advertising dept
After plenty of complaints (and whispers about potential legal troubles) a lot of US wireless carriers have backed off from calling very, very limited data plans "unlimited." Apparently, the discount wireless provider Cricket wasn't informed that when you say unlimited, you actually are supposed to mean unlimited. lavi d writes in to point us to Cricket's highly publicized "Unlimited" data plan. You see, right there at the top, it even highlights in orange that it's UNLIMITED. It's only after you go through all the fine print and get almost to the bottom that you see this:Throughput may be limited if use exceeds 5GB per month. Internet browsing does not include: hosted computer applications, continuous web camera or broadcast, automatic data feeds, machine-to-machine connections, peer to peer (P2P) connections or other applications that denigrate network capacity or functionality.I don't want to be too presumptuous about the definition of "unlimited" but when you say quite clearly that the plan "may be limited," one would have to think that you're outright lying when you call it unlimited. Whatever happened to truth in advertising?
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Filed Under: limited, unlimited
Companies: cricket wireless
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Truth = Lies
Anyway, "unlimited" can probably be used since they say "may be limited" which then legally means that everyone is unlimited with only a certain non-specific person might be limited at some point. So legally I would guess that allows them to say one thing but really do the opposite.
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Re: Truth = Lies
"Best" is qualitative and subjective, while "unlimited" is quantitative and objective. They're not analogous at all.
"Anyway, 'unlimited' can probably be used since they say "may be limited" which then legally means that everyone is unlimited with only a certain non-specific person might be limited at some point."
That makes absolutely no fricken sense, and I'm an attorney with a philosophy degree, so I'm used to linguistic BS.
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No all-you-can-eat
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Re: No all-you-can-eat
Also they plan does not say it is unlimited unrestricted. They expect you to use the phone plan for normal operations on the phone not as a mobile connection to the internet for your computer.
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Throughput != Total Usage
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Re: Throughput != Total Usage
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Machine to machine?
I do question whether "limited" implies deactivation, or throttling, or filtering of certain connection types (P2P, streaming video, etc.). I do think calling any plan which is artificially limited "Unlimited" is pretty scummy, though.
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not cut off
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They need to specify what "Internet Browsing" is. As per their definition of what it's not, excludes ALL types of data connections, including web pages, as web pages are rendered from "hosted computer applications" and "machine-to-machine connections" and also "applications that denigrate network capacity or functionality."
So technically, the only thing their plan covers is POTS via wireless phone connectivity, however their disclaimer may even remove that as it could still fall within, "machine-to-machine connections" and also "applications that denigrate network capacity or functionality."
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Is that $25 per Meg or $.25 per meg?
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Re: Is that $25 per Meg or $.25 per meg?
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Denigrate:
1 : to attack the reputation of : defame
2 : to deny the importance or validity of : belittle
So, I guess those webcams, applications and network connections need to stop calling each other names.
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Terms of Service
That lawyer could use a dictionary.
By complaining to you about the lame contract, he has denigrated the service and already violated the contract. Or does that condition only apply if an application represents it as lacking in value?
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Change w/o notice
(I'm not going to enable JS just to look at their TOS)
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Read the fine print
*Except when I'm lying.
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love it
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Free Speech ?
A few years ago there was a company defending its self against a false advertising claim, I do not recall the name of the comapany. But their attempted defense was a claim that the company has a right to free speech and that everyone knows that the ads are not truthful anyway. I think they lost
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I would not call this unlimited, but aside from the improper use of that one term, Cricket was very up front. I talked with their online reps as well as a local sales person who explained that the machine-to-machine was meant to combat peer-to-peer file sharing. But it was written so broad that it includes terminal server and citrix situations. And the REALLY DUMB PART, everything is a machine-to-machine connection, even web surfing is my machine connecting to someone elses machine.
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Another Unfortunate Use of "Limited"
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Another Unfortunate Use of "Limited"
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Avoiding exploitation..
Whenever there is all-you-can-eat scenario it is going to be misused. I think there should be more pay-as-you-go plans. In this case if 5GB is costing $40, then charge $10 for maintainance+ say a cent for every 50MB.
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On the Same Page
"you get all the blogs, videos and music downloads you want."
Ugh, someone's gonna have to explain that one to me, especially after scrolling down and finding this:
"Throughput may be limited if use exceeds 5GB per month. Internet browsing does not include: hosted computer applications, continuous web camera or broadcast, automatic data feeds, machine-to-machine connections, peer to peer (P2P) connections or other applications that denigrate network capacity or functionality."
It seems to me someone who makes way too much money can't make up their mind.
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TOS without notice
Thats like saying you owe me $100 for me giving you a rid home and during the rid i change the conditions 3 times and now you owe me $250 and you have no rights at all..
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Whatever happened to truth in advertising?
that's what legal and marketing departments are for: to manage the creation and dissemination of lies.
corporations lie. advertisers lie. sales people lie. politicians lie. lying is what makes the world go round.
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Here we go
IF YOU ADVERTISE UNLIMITED YOU NEED TO HAVE THE CAPACITY FOR IT. IF YOU CANT HANDLE THE LOAD, DONT ALLOW NEW CUSTOMERS TO SIGN UP.
ITS NOT "ABUSE" IF YOU USE THE FULL BANDWIDTH YOU PAID FOR.
PUSHING "UNLIMITED" TO GET PEOPLE TO SIGN UP AND THEN BURYING LIMITS IN THE FINE PRINT IS NOT PROPER, LEGAL, OR RIGHT
That should counter just about all the arguments that will inevitably pour out from the mouth-breathers.
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It's Hard
I would not want to read my email on that system.
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Re: It's Hard
You Tube, all the news site video, as well as many web pages nowadays all use high bandwidth to deliver their content. When I first connected with them, it was blazing fast to me, who just came off dialup - with d/l's transferring around 1 megabit (modem connects at 230k internally, so there is a lot of compression somewhere). Now I'm lucky to get 128k - ALL THE TIME. It truly sucks now waiting almost as long for video to buffer, it was just like the dialup I left behind.
Now the next part: Try to call them to register a complaint - really. Good luck. Apparently there are no supervisors, and all their paeons can't scratch their ass without approval from the main office... If they can find their ass with both hands in their back pockets...
I'm an old MS support guy (Win95 days), and just shake my head at all the lost opportunities when these new companies don't listen to their customers. No wonder the economy is in such a mess - there is no pride in putting forth the best product and service anymore, or mastering a true working knowledge of your product - just cheaper, faster, more profit.
If you are the 'granny special' types, don't have DSL or cable in your area (but DO have a Cricket tower near you), or you need a cheap plan just when you are mobile, with a good battery in your portable, this is a good plan and product. If you plan to really surf (and have the extra money - I don't), you should spring for cable, WiFi, or something faster and more stable.
Good luck to all, and peace.
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Misunderstanding "Machine to Machine"
As for MACHINE-TO-MACHINE, I can clear up some of the confusion. M2M is industry jargon, so no wonder it doesn't make sense to readers here, nor should it. It shouldn't be written in a consumer-facing document.
M2M refers to a specific type of enterprise wireless connection, such as sensor networks, vending machines, traffic cameras, telematics, etc. One important aspect of M2M connections is that that there is NOT a human on the remote end of the connection, but JUST a machine. MetroPCS wants to protect the opportunity to sell these enterprise customers different plans, not the consumer plan for $40.
So in industry jargon, you using your laptop to connect to a server is not M2M.
More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_to_Machine
Derek Kerton
Telecom Analyst
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Why? Here's why:
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Re: Why? Here's why:
no one is arguing with the limits. people are arguing about the fact that the plan is advertised as unlimited when there are in fact, several limitations.
a buffet advertised as "all you can eat" that cuts you off after two plates full shouldn't be billed as "all you can eat" it should be billed as "limit two plates per customer". if you can't handle the load, don't tell your customers that you can. that's dishonest.
all broadband service is limited. those limits should be clearly noted so that we can evaluate each providers' limitations and make an informed choice.
why> here's why: competition. no one in the telecommunications industry wants competition. so they lie to consumers so they can't make informed choices, and make them sign contracts so they can't switch once they've been screwed.
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Why? It was already answered Momo
Too late, sorry. See comment #29 above yours. Thank you for playing, please try again. Try using a real argument next time and one that hasnt already been rendered moot by nearly all the previous comments in the thread.
Oh I suppose I may as well re-state it, since you are obviously oblivious:
DONT ADVERTISE UNLIMITED IF IT HAS LIMITS
IT'S NOT "ABUSE" TO USE WHAT YOU PAID FOR TO ITS FULLEST
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Hasn't this been going on forever?
It just wasn't AOL. I subscribed to a local mom & pa ISP that advertised "Unlimited Ineternet for $19.99 a month" back in the dial up days. Low-and-behold, I wasn't able to connect to my account anymore after a few months and when I called "Tech Support" I was told that I was staying connected too long and that I would need to pay for a "Dedicated" connection at $40.00.
The word "Unlimited" has been beaten to death since consumers started paying for the internet long ago.
This will probably go on forever. Companies just want to take your money, and they do so by lying to you with false promises. It's how it has always been and always will be.
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Re: Hasn't this been going on forever?
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Nothing is Unlimited
As a consumer, just remember this: nothing is unlimited.
Then you will never be dissapointed.
If ANY consumer internet service was truly unlimited, I would simply add it to my datacenter and resell the bandwidth as commercial.
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Cracks me up
Hugs,
Daniel
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"Whatever happened to truth in advertising?"
oh, you were serious.
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5 gigs
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hosted computer applications?
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