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morbo
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morbo to en102

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to en102

Re: Breach of contract?

package or no package: this is a material change to the contract. message rates were set at the time of the agreement between the customer and AT&T. changing the rates now is...well a change, hence, any AT&T customer can get out of their contract for the next 30 days without penalty.

en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

en102

Member

said by morbo:

package or no package: this is a material change to the contract.
To what contract? There are no contract term rates for pay per use messaging. Messaging is a la carte.
The options for a la carte messaging are:
- None (i.e. disabled, which is how I have mine)
- Pay per use, in which rates are subject to change
- Bundled (i.e. 200 texts for $4.99)

»www.wireless.att.com/cel ··· .jsp#gsm
quote:
Pricing/Taxes/No Proration: Final month's charges are not prorated. Prices are subject to change. Prices do not include taxes.

morbo
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morbo

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said by en102:

- Pay per use, in which rates are subject to change
- Bundled (i.e. 200 texts for $4.99)
changing the price of messages is breaking the contract. simply saying "prices are subject to change" does not give AT&T a free pass for changing the prices. changing the price has consequences.

en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

en102

Member

This is no different than me having a 2 year satellite contract for TV service and during that period seeing pay-per view price change for a boxing match or NFL/NHL items changing during that time. The pay-per view was not part of the contract rate there was no contract stating that that item was
a) purchased
b) set to a specific rate, never to change

Show me where in the contract that it states that PPU messaging is part of any contract for AT&T.

morbo
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morbo

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the difference is messaging is on by default on all cell phones. you can receive messages without your consent. people spam you without your consent. that would be fine if the rate was the same as it was at the time the contract was agreed to.

with pay per view, you and only you (or family member) initiate ordering the program and resultant charges.

see the difference? MAYBE you would have a point if txt messaging was turned off by default, but it is not. so you are wrong.

en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

en102

Member

You can also disable messaging on your cell phone.
The U.S. industry is a pain for 'opt-out'. If they don't give you any form of disabling messages, or charge extra to have messaging disabled (parental controls) then yeah, they'd have a lawsuit, and I'd be joining it.

morbo
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morbo

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messaging is on by default. i remember reading that carriers don't always (consistently?) allow users to disable messaging.

when carriers start requiring users to TURN ON messaging, then i will agree with your point. until then, consumers should be aware that they can break their contract when their provider breaks it by raising rates.

en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

1 edit

en102

Member

Yup - messaging is on by default - I had to disable mine when I migrated from AT&T Wireless (Free inbound messages) to Cingular/AT&T. If they would not have let me, I would have sued. They should have a disable text option... it would solve this.