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News
September 1, 2009
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T-Mobile raises overage rates; cancel your contract sans-ETF

By on September 1, 2009 at 3:21 PM.

T-Mobile raises overage rates; cancel your contract sans-ETF

They say when the cell phone gods close a door, they open a window. Such is the case this morning for T-Mobile subscribers who aren’t enjoying their time with the carrier. As of today, T-Mobile is raising its overage rates to 45¢ per minute on individual plans under $59.99 and family plans under $89.99, and 40¢ per minute for plans above those price points. Since this rate increase is carrier-invoked and it constitutes a “materially adverse change of contract,” subscribers will be able to flee without the need to pay a hefty Early Termination Fee (ETF) — just as many did with Sprint earlier this year. What do you do if you want out of your contract? Get ready for battle, that’s what. As always with carriers, odds are good the some (or even most) customer service reps won’t even know about this option. When you call, be patient while the CS rep gathers info. Make sure that when you explain why you want to cancel your contract, you specifically cite these overage rate increases as your motive. If your rep starts giving you a hard time or doesn’t sound like he/she is going to put the pieces together, ask to speak to a manager or simply call back and start over with another rep. Oh, and hit the jump for a section of the T-Mobile contract that you may want to familiarize yourself with.

Thanks, Dan!

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News
August 10, 2009
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AT&T: No class action lawsuits for you

By on August 10, 2009 at 2:15 PM.

AT&T: No class action lawsuits for you

While we sincerely hope this most recent change to AT&T’s ToC wouldn’t hold up in any court of law, AT&T’s latest addition to its terms and conditions is yet another example of the terrible joke that US carriers are becoming. Last week we covered the new paper billing fee T-Mobile has confirmed it will be implementing soon and now we have this — a newly discovered clause that prevents AT&T Mobility customer from entering into a class action lawsuit against the company. Beyond that, the section this snippet was pulled from is intended to limit dispute escalation to binding arbitration or small claims court as opposed to “courts of general jurisdiction”. Seriously.

Any arbitration under this Agreement will take place on an individual basis; class arbitrations and class actions are not permitted.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to go chat with our lawyers to discuss the possibility of filing a class action suit against AT&T for trying to stop us from being able to file class action suits. Not really, but we should.

[Via Slashdot]

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Services
February 17, 2009
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Boost Mobile unlimited plan: Too good to be true?

By on February 17, 2009 at 7:55 AM.

Boost Mobile unlimited plan: Too good to be true?

Ahh the battle of the unlimited plans. Last month we learned of a new offering from Boost Mobile that seemed as though it would come in as the obvious winner, for those in areas well-covered by Sprint’s iDEN network at least. $50 each month, unlimited everything – or so we thought. As has become an unfortunate commonplace among service providers in various industries, unlimited doesn’t always mean unlimited and Zatz Not Funny! has inadvertently uncovered some troubling verbiage in the terms and conditions tied to Boost’s monthly unlimited plan. While searching for a new wireless broadband service provider, Zatz learned that Boost prohibits “unreasonable” usage and uses familiarly vague language to give the company an out in the event a subscriber is costing it too much money with heavy usage.

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