AT&T Threatens To Cut Off Phone Service For Guy Who Beat Them In Small Claims Court Over Throttling
from the playing-dirty dept
As you may have heard over the last couple months, AT&T has gone to war with customers who bought its "unlimited" data plans. While the company no longer offers such plans, existing users were grandfathered in. And they like those plans. AT&T, however, would prefer to move them over to tiered plans under which they'll pay more. So it began throttling their connections. If they were using a fair amount of data (really not that much), it slowed their connection down to the point of being basically useless. This is a pure bait-and-switch tactic, where the company sold customers something that it then failed to deliver.A guy named Matt Spaccarelli felt that this was a clear breach of contract and sued in small claims court... and won $850 ($85 is his monthly fee, and the judge felt that there were 10 months left on the contract that was violated... so, $850). Spaccarelli then also set up a website with all the details, so that others could file their own lawsuits. Apparently, AT&T is none too pleased about this and is playing hardball with the guy, threatening to cut off his phone service after determining that he used the phone to tether.
How nice, right? Beat AT&T in small claims court, and they'll potentially cut off your phone service.
Separately, they're trying to "settle" with him, but are pissed off that he's been public about the settlement attempts so far, as the key thing in the mind of AT&T lawyers and execs is getting a gag order in place to stop others from going down the same path. Of course, there's no requirement that Spaccarelli settle or agree to any gag order, and it sounds like he's not planning to:
Spaccarelli has posted online the documents he used to argue his case and encourages other AT&T customers copy his suit. Legal settlements usually include non-disclosure agreements that would force Spaccarelli to take down the documents.Good for him.
In its letter, AT&T asked Spaccarelli to be quiet about the settlement talks, including the fact that it offered to start them, another common stipulation. Spaccarelli said he was not interested in settling, and forwarded the letter to The Associated Press.
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.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: bandwidth, bandwidth hogs, business model, caps, data hogs, matt spaccarelli, small claims court, spectrum, throttling, usage
Companies: at&t
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
cheers ;)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is going to be a good one!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/t-offers-quiet-settlement-iphone-193059176.html
here's an article on Consumerist:
http://consumerist.com/2012/03/att-threatens-to-cancel-service-for-man-who-won-throttl ing-lawsuit-if-he-wont-discuss-settlement.html
that says:
"AT&T has reached out to Consumerist to clarify that the letter only threatens to terminate the customer's service only if he signed the nondisclosure agreement and then violated the terms of that agreement. We have subsequently confirmed this with a source who has seen a copy of the letter."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
The court found in his favor, and he contacted them to get what he was awarded.
Now they want to bring him to the table and work out a "settlement" in secret.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
I really think they were hoping to lock down the news of this case to avoid the coming onslaught of people annoyed with unlimited having limits that were never made clear.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
I'm surprised AT&T didn't see this coming when they first offered 'unlimited' plans. Don't they pay their lawyers enough for good advise, or did they just ignore the advise of their lawyers?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
I tried to copy and paste the letter but it's a PDF. And know one is shaving my dog..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Tim (the mobile carrier) charges different prices if you connect via cellphone, USB modem or desk modem. Srsly? This has to stop, if you pay for a determined speed and/or amount of data you should be able to use that shit as your heart decides. The ISP has nothing to do with it.
Reminds me of when the tards in my ISP told me I can't use a router to serve all my computers at home with my connection. My reply was pretty simple: O rly? Stop me from doing it then =) They never mentioned it again.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Tethering
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I think it's time for a good old fashioned laugh...
Everybody!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Copyright claim
Any customer with the last name Spaccarelli or any other last name hereby allows AT&T to come over and shave his dog, change the temperature setting on his refrigerator, replace his laundry detergent with used motor oil... oh, and change their mobile plan whenever the hell we choose; thereby giving up any rights to defend themselves, any rights to file a lawsuit, any rights to anything other than breathe, and any rights to speak or hire an attorney.
Why do I have the feeling the AT&T contract is about to become about 8,000 pages longer?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Copyright claim
...sigh... now I have to go watch Major Payne again.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Copyright claim
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
they seem to be asking for it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
As for HSPA, which is an improvement upon and was based on WCDMA, heavily involves multiplexing. That's how it works.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Multiplexing?
Kidding aside, if you are not getting the service level that you paid for, stop paying. If you are getting what you paid for, who cares if your data is carried over multiplexed fiber or carrier pigeon?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Multiplexing?
1. Sharing bandwidth with other customers over common lines with occasional slowdowns, and
2. Losing connectivity for five minutes, then being connected for five minutes, ad infinitum, even if it is full speed while connected.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Multiplexing?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Multiplexing?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Won't somebody ....??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
there's no way those angles could ever tell a lie or violate a contract. This man is clearly satan.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I certainly broke many contract rules. Tethering denied but they don't care. BitTorrent use banned but I was fair & did that during the night. Then they banned Yahoo Messenger but I worked around it. And last is that their "unlimited" plan gets increasingly restricted the more often you exceed 1GB which I avoided by switching between three SIMs for fully unlimited each month.
Well I don't see how any service can not expect people to do tethering when with one laptop connection your Internet linked phone is now a wireless modem.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm confused
I have a mobile data plan with my phone company in New Zealand, and I can tether whatever I want to my phone with no issues or threats of extra charges, mainly because I HAVE PAID FOR IT. Why does the American public let the telco's do this without calling them to account?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'm confused
So if you want actual good service, you'll have to take your phone elsewhere. It kind of sucks but we need to fix that 2006 ruling that allows AT&T along with TWC not to share DSL lines.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: I'm confused
fortunately, in NZ the telecommunications industry is... heavily... regulated. this is mostly as a consequence of the process of privatizing the originally government owned telephone monopoly some years back. (it was originally part of the, then government run, post office. ... as was one of the banks (also since privatized then bought up by and merged with an Australian bank). amusingly, the post office is, if memory serves, now a State Owned Enterprise, and a new, government owned, national bank, while still a separate entity to the best of my knowledge, generally shares premises with it, at least at a 'customer interaction' level.)
that aside, the cell phone companies (or at least two of them) still overcharge quite badly for some things, data usually being one of them.
but yeah, they charge enough for some services that they periodically get investigated over their prices (that aforementioned regulation, you see), but problem wise that's pretty much it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'm confused
The thing that annoys me is that these limitations are in all of the mobile phone carriers' contract, which means I can't get away from it by changing carriers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: I'm confused
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'm confused
In the US the laws that regulate the telco industry are largely written through lobbying efforts on the part of the telco conglomerates such that they can limit competition and maximize profits without regard for their customers interests.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'm confused
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
All wrong.
Matt Spaccarelli is certainly in his rights to make public his victory and to encourage others to follow him. AT&T's gagging order will certainly fail when they are the ones who broke the contract and now want to deny his free speech.
We can be certain that AT&T are none too pleased with these developments losing up to $850 each case. However to cut off his phone link would be very vindictive and may even result in another court case.
AT&T need to listen to what is said. They made a deal under contract and it is their lawful obligation to honour that deal stating "unlimited". If they do not like it then do not renew the agreement at the end of the 12 months. If they want users to switch earlier than offer them a better deal.
It is however wrong for AT&T to cripple their expensive service just to force people to get back on their feet under another plan.
I am sorry to say AT&T that you have much pain due until you realise you did wrong and make amends. There is no other option here but to honour the contract.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Observation...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's time to fight back.
The future is at stake.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ATT just throttled my data : (
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
AT&T and the weenies that are the doormats
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Habit of Searching Phone Numbers Online
[ link to this | view in chronology ]