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 ·Optimum Online
 ·Verizon FiOS
| Means to an end... There is an answer to all of this.. if you can't accept the terms of the contract.. don't sign it in the first place!
Yell, scream, bitch and moan right in the store that you will not sign a contract which includes binding arbitration (or other limitation of your rights as a consumer to challenge their billing / service quality). Telecom companies have had the rugs pulled out from under them with VOIP and they think they can have free access to your wallet in the cell phone industry... well, let me tell you my friend, WIRELESS VOIP will begin to eat away at your cell phone customers too, whether or not you cripple smart phone wireless voip capability or not. IMO, cell phones are only really good for "must carry" service such as "911" which must work even if a phone has no activation. Subscribe and that's where the major carriers have you over a barrel. Would they even think of trying this contract crap if you were subscribing to a landline? Hells no.
Cellular phone service should become much cheaper than it is.. but because you have greed in the auctioning off of (your government owned fcc property) spectrum, greed in the companies who make handsets, greed in the companies who supply upgraded cell phone network equipment and greed upon the companies who supply service... you have a service which should be dirt cheap by now.. but is not due to all these hands aiming for your wallet even before you walk into the store.
Sure, gasoline should be under $2 a gallon too, but is it? No.. several complicated intertwining issues cause it to be $3, 4, 5 a gallon and more.. so the real answer is, when will the price be high enough to break the backs of the consumer to finally choose alternatives in droves? Probably not before a major bailout of one or more of the big 3 auto makers.
I always use the adage, it's your money before you decide to give it to them. In a poor economy, buyers can sometimes be in the drivers seat if they form boycott coalitions against companies who play the game that plays the consumer for a fool. AT&T is but one of these.. | |
ncbillPremium
join:2007-01-23
Winston Salem, NC Reviews:
 ·AT&T Southeast
| Contractual terms cannot abrogate rights granted to the consumer under statute.
The reality is that there is usually only one telco provider in a given market.
As a regulated monopoly, that telco will be subject to strict statuatory requirements by the state utilities commission.
Whether you agree or not, those are the restrictions the telco accepts if they want to continue doing business in that state. | |
| said by ncbill:Contractual terms cannot abrogate rights granted to the consumer under statute. The reality is that there is usually only one telco provider in a given market. As a regulated monopoly, that telco will be subject to strict statuatory requirements by the state utilities commission. Whether you agree or not, those are the restrictions the telco accepts if they want to continue doing business in that state. Not entirely correct; AT&T has applications before the CPUC, and, I'm sure, in other states as well, to remove it from TARIFF and PUC regulation in consideration of the non-existent, purely fictional new "competitive" market for telecommunications they contend exists. They intend to set rates with minimal federal, and no state, interference in the future. Read the new service agreements, and you will find the Guide Book will define Plan features and Plan rates in the future. The "Real Plan" is to be 100% free from regulation, period. AT&T has changed the contract terms for all residential and small business services. Read the documents I posted, they are the new service agreements everyone will be subject to upon September payment in advance for October service, or on Oct. 1, 2008, whichever comes first.
You may have statutory protections, but most such protections may be voluntarily waived, as in the case of AT&Ts new service agreement requirements.
Not content with mandatory arbitration, AT&T insists the arbitrators may not consider the application of any law outside the provisions of the terms of the AT&T Residential, or Business, Service Agreement, and limits claims to the amount of the disputed billing, or in the case of AT&Ts gross negligence, to actual, provable damages. Punitive damages are specifically disallowed. Right to bring a class action, or participation in class action lawsuits is specifically waived, and strictly forbidden. A lawsuit for actual damages in amounts less than the cap on small claims in your jurisdiction may be brought in small claims court only, and punitive damages may not be claimed, or awarded.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless AT&T, its officers, directors, employees, agents, assignees, subsidiaries, and affiliates from any and all liability for their acts, legal or illegal, past, present and future. | |
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