Walmart's Straight Talk Sued for 'Unlimited' Data Claim Straight Talk, a MNVO from TracFone Wireless and Walmart, took some heat back in April after numerous Facebook users accused the company of promoting an unlimited service, then capping users at around 1.5 GB of usage. One of the company's reps didn't help its case by confirming that usage was capped at 1.5 GB. The company then took to their blog to note it isn't really a hard cap, but "unlimited" users will be throttled. The company is now facing a class action lawsuit over the shifty marketing language: quote:
The plaintiffs in the suit detailed how the companies slowed their speed of service or cut it off it altogether and then blamed the subscribers for misusing of the service. The plaintiffs David Hansel, Edward Tooley and Christopher Valdez filed their claims on behalf of others, and allege breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, and violations of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, California's Unfair Competition Law and California's Consumer Legal Remedies Act.
It remains unclear just how many lawsuits, regulatory wrist slaps and public shamings it will take before companies just take the easy road and simply eliminate the word "unlimited" from their marketing lexicon.
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  IPPlanManHoly Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC
kudos:1 | AT&T-like BS all over again It's AT&T-like "unlimited" BS all over again.
Not as bad as the tightening noose of the "top 5% of users" scheme AT&T initially tried, but just as bad as the 5GB LTE cap then throttle which is marketed as unlimited. | |
|  | Reviews:
 ·Charter
| Re: AT&T-like BS all over again See tho, I think part of the problem here, is that its not really STs choice on who to throttle or cut off, since they do not actually own or operate any cell towers, they are fully renting time on others. If those main carriers decide that a device is using too much data, or is to be throttled or cut off, I don't think ST has much say in it, and I doubt ST can override AT&T. I have used 3GB to 4GB per month for almost a year, and have never been throttled or cut off. When I go to more crowded markets, yes, I get throttled, but I believe it has more to do with how AT&T decides to throttle, and while ST is somewhat to blame for shitty ToS, and no refunds at all(by law, in some states, they have to provide refunds if they cut you off, or you cancel, so in most cases, you can disregard this ToS language), and also to blame for being cryptic about it, I don't think its entirely their fault with it. I used almost 1000 minutes last month as well, and not a peep was heard. | |
| | | | | Re: AT&T-like BS all over again ST is entirely to blame. The ST customer-consumer did not enter into a contract with AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, or whoever the actual provider of the service is. The consumer entered into a contract with ST.
While the reason for the throttling and/or service limitations may not rest or be decided by ST exclusively, failing to disclose the possibility and/or provide a fair-use limit left them open to such a lawsuit. | |
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| | Unlimited is a misnomer that should be eliminated in favor of "metered" vs unmetered service and should be advertised as such. Any caps or throttling should come under metered service. No restriction on speed or quantity of data throughput should be advertised as unmetered. I don't have a problem with caps or throttling per se, but I do detest sleazy marketing practices. Wouldn't it be nice if marketers were just honest, instead of a bunch of self-serving capitalist predators. | |
| | | | Re: Unlimited is a misnomer what if they advertised it as unlimited 2G service? That's what it turns into after the 1.5GB limit anyways. | |
| | | | | Re: Unlimited is a misnomer I'm on an AT&T unlimited plan.. when I go past 5GB, my device slows down to 500kbps on the download, and upload is unaffected. Latency is still low ~60ms. | |
| | | | Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·voip.ms
| Re: Unlimited is a misnomer Its a cat and mouse game. Even though they LIE about unlimited, they use a half a$$ed TOS which contradicts itself many times. It can almost be construed that any internet activities are unallowed. Specifically it mentions no continual streaming which is foolish because streaming is continual.
In any case I had ST for some years and NEVER had an issue w/ customer service or throttled and used both the TMO and T networks. Forum people lie lots of times, but I have no doubt that if customers were hitting limits (unknown) there were people getting cut off. That is the problem, hit some unknown limit and then get a call saying you are abusing your services, and they don't tell you WHY.
Some people were getting cut off for using too many voice minutes too. Again TOS talks about conference calls and other things, but who really knows if that is accurate.
That is the main issue, outside of the fact it is by NO MEANS UNLIMITED. | |
| | | | | Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
1 edit | Re: Unlimited is a misnomer ST does have issues with throttling and cutting users off, I got an angry call from ST threatening cancellation because of some heavy usage during hurricane sandy, about 4GB and left for Solavei, which clearly states 4GB and then throttling to 128k after 4GB. Imho that's what these provider's should do offer a clear explanation of unlimited. In AT&T's case they do throttle in congested markets, possibily at any time and this should be mentioned by ST.
Throttling a connection after a certain point is fine for prepaid carrier's imho, just be up front about it. If you don't control all of the factor's in throttling in the case of AT&T sim's be up front about that too.
Most importantly don't disconnect users, just throttle them. I wouldn't have left ST if they merely throttled me, it was the threatening to cancel and lose my number (which I had ported to ST) that caused me to leave. From what I've heard they don't disconnect users like they used to. | |
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| | |  MajestikWorld TravelerPremium
join:2001-05-11
Tulsa, OK | I'm on AT&T unlimited as well. Past 5gb I'm can still stream everything fine.
Can't tell any difference actually.
Haven't checked the throttled speeds in over a year or more.
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The adventure continues...Sanctuary.... | |
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| | Reviews:
·Charter
| I used 4GB on ST last month, and am on track to use about 3 this month, and have never been warned or kicked off. I think it more has to do with how AT&T handles the local market, since Tmo explicitly states they do not do anything to ST customers data, its all ST(hence the new ST APN settings for Tmo). AT&T does actively throttle connections to its network, if the local network is congested. | |
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| | | Those of us who have ever dealt with the web hosting industry knows that we got past this over a decade ago. They would constantly advertise unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited etc.. Many switched over to saying "unmetered bandwidth" and the likes of such instead. It cut down on a lot of problems.
Maybe the Telecommunications industry will take a hint sooner or later. | |
| | KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | I think the courts should step in and require any company that is not 100% unlimited to remove it from their advertising. And also require them to in advertising that can be localized show the out the door price.(so for example if you look at a phone and plan on the internet where they make you enter your zipcode they should then tell you up front the plan costs with all fees and weaseling included..)
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
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 FFHPremium
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ
kudos:5 | Tracfone cust svc rep as amongst worst well earned Tracfone has earned their reputation as one of the absolute worst cell providers in existence. This is just more fuel for the fire.
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"If you want to anger a conservative lie to him.
If you want to anger a liberal tell him the truth." | |
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1 recommendation | Straight Talk If it didn't state which type, and you get throttled back to 2G/Edge, service is still unlimited. I'm not condoning the practice, but I do fault people who don't read the TOS or the service agreement. If the company has not stated this in the contract, then they are truly at fault.
If you want unlimited fast service - look for unlimited LTE or whatever. And you will have to pay for it.
TMO did this also. I got pissed at the "MY DATA" crowd. They wanted everything for nothing. Some were using well over 50G per week, tethering and bragging about it! If you want that kind of data, then go get an account at a company that can accommodate this and pay for it. I have 2G data, and if I can't access when I need it because some pig is hogging it all, I'll be annoyed. I suppose if you look at usage statistics, most people with unlimited are far more reasonable with usage. There were all kinds of posts on the phone forums. Most didn't care for throttling, but couldn't come up with any other solution for "Piggery" except denying heavy data for these folks until off hours.
You are getting unlimited service albeit throttled. | |
| | | | Re: Straight Talk How about they upgrade their backhauls to account for the bandwidth demand. They claim they want to drop all copper because wireless is SO much cheaper and better than land lines for bandwidth. Yet they will not spend to fit the demand of wireless. For $60-$100/month there SHOULD be absolutely nothing wrong with 50G a month usage. It's pennies to the carrier. Yet they can flip it and blame their users so they can gouge charge them per the GB.
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A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the corporations discover that money can elect representatives to vote themselves a monopoly, buy media to blame 'The Godless' and forced price inflation on the public. | |
| | | | | |  trparkyApple... YUMPremium,MVM
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
kudos:2
1 recommendation | It's not just the connection to the tower that's being saturated but it's the airwaves themselves. You can upgrade the tower connection all you want but if you're maxing out the spectrum there's nothing you can do.
Unless someone comes up with some fancy and magical way of shoving gigabits of data through the air with relative ease and make it cheap to do so, we are always going to have spectrum issues and have to deal with restrictive use. Where's subspace communications when you need it?
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Tom
Tom's Tech Blog | |
| | | Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
| You have no idea what your talking about, backhaul isn't the major problem for wireless carrier's it's spectrum. Spectrum is a finite resource that carrier's can't simply add, the spectrum at the cell site is finite and shared by all of the user's of the cell. 50G usage by cellular connections is not sustainable given current spectrum holdings.
Get your head out of marketing people's asses, cellular is not a replacement for wireline broadband, don't try to get something for nothing. Maybe cellular provider's should be clearer about what point they start throttling at, but leaches like you are the reason that unlimited data is going the way of the dodo. | |
| | | |  batterupI Can Not Tell A Lie.Premium
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ | Re: Straight Talk said by MovieLover76: but leaches like you are the reason that unlimited data is going the way of the dodo.
Are you saying the poster is like liquid from a septic tank? | |
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| batterupI Can Not Tell A Lie.Premium
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ | said by carpetshark3:If you want unlimited fast service - look for unlimited LTE or whatever. And you will have to pay for it.
Like my unlimited 4G from Verizon; $10 a gig with a 5 gig minimum a month. | |
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Reviews:
 ·Yadkin Valley Te..
| walmart's milking you. i think most other companies long ago fixed their marketing, not straight talk, marketed by walmart. this throttle stuff only happened a limited number of times after that they marked your phone as a problem and cut you off permanently. they would mislead and get people to buy more service and then give them the bad news.
can you imagine being the customer who maybe bought a year of unlimited service at once to find out for example for the next 8 months you would get zero data because you did something like use the unlimited data service you paid for. it happened to lots of people. | |
| | | | Re: walmart's milking you. Define lots of people? and also WM is part of this lawsuit as well. | |
|
 IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA
·Comcast
 ·Verizon Broadban..
| At least Verizon Wireless is honest At least Verizon clearly states there is a cap and you'll be billed for overages.
If a wireless data service was truly unlimited, the networks would collapse from being overloaded with data hungry applications. There is only so much spectrum to go around before you start disrupting other services and emergency/public safety communications. That is why caps are a necessary evil with wireless data.
Now the goal should be to develop apps that use data more efficiently like they did with voice. There was once upon a time where they had to limit voice minutes to prevent network overload but they have optimized the handling of voice calls to use network resources more efficiently so unlimited voice is now possible.
I know from experience that networks can and do get overloaded. Have you ever tried checking the weather on a 3G/4G connection at a state fair. I tried checking the weather at the Big E last year on my iPhone 4 during the Big E's 17 day run and the fairgrounds are covered by 1-2 cell towers that are not designed to handle the load of the state fair. Verizon ain't going to cough up the money to build cell towers to handle a 17 day event. They might use portable cells but those are a joke, they probably handle voice traffic ok but forget it with data. I know AT&T uses portable cell sites because they set them up by the food court.
But as long as I can use the voice and SMS on my iPhone, that is what is important. Data is secondary.
At least with this year's Big E I have the iPhone 5 so that has LTE. Maybe checking the weather might be better as LTE handles the load better.
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I've experienced ImOn (when they were McLeod USA), Mediacom, Comcast, and Time Warner and I currently have DirecTV. They are much better than broadcast TV.
I have not and will not cut the cord. | |
| |  chip89
join:2012-07-05
Independence, OH | Re: At least Verizon Wireless is honest I'm on sprint they have true unlimited data I don't have any problems useing the sprint network. | |
| | | | said by IowaCowboy:If a wireless data service was truly unlimited, the networks would collapse from being overloaded with data hungry applications. Well one of 4 things would happen and SHOULD be allowed to happen.
1.) Carrier will invest in improving service.
2.) User's will become unhappy and leave to go to another carrier, thus freeing up bandwidth for users that stay.
3.) Someone will innovate something to make it all better.
4.) Neither 1, 2 nor 3 will happen and the consumers will just deal with it.
My main problem with your argument in general is that ALL of these companies are perfectly fine with you using unlimited amounts of data as long as you are willing to give up your first born, an arm, a leg and one of your kidneys as if when you suddenly start paying them more that "congestion" suddenly disappears and all is right in wonderland.
To me throttling is a good and acceptable way to deal with the limited spectrum. However, they should not be able to use the term unlimited in any way to associate it with a metered service as it is not unlimited. If they limit your speed because of the amount of data used, then they just put a limit on your unlimited plan regardless of how they spin it. | |
| | | | TracFone and Straight Talk are both honest. It's not THEIR Fault that customers do not read. Is it Capital One's fault that you don't read your TOS/AUP to use their card and then decide to use them??? | |
| |
1 recommendation | This is such crap sometimes. If they can setup COWs at football stadium using the same frequency to manage the load they can do the same with typical towers (with permits of-course which I totally understand can be a pain in the butt to get). A network is only as good as it's admin and the problem is they don't want to invest the capital back into the network but instead into pockets and portfolios.
When you go to a football stadium, everyone is using 2.4Ghz for WIFI and with 20-30users it would probably bog down to crappy speeds. The trick is having multiple antennas and bandwidth to handle the crowd. They space them out and limit power and obviously have enough bandwidth per node to handle tons of clients per node (as stadium can be up to 90,000 people in a "small" space). | |
| | | IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA Reviews:
·Comcast
·Verizon Broadban..
| Re: At least Verizon Wireless is honest And you would think with the frequency of football games they would just lease space from the stadium owner (the NFL) and install permanent cell sites in these facilities. Would be a much better long term solution considering the manpower needed to put up/take down a COW unit. And the NFL season runs late summer to big game Sunday so I think permanent cell sites would be more feasible.
State fairs on the other hand (such as the Iowa State Fair or the Big E) run once a year and only last 17 days so a portable cell site and the labor to run the back haul and set up the unit would be much more feasible.
Another potential use for COWs is local 4th of July celebrations but those are usually one weekend at most.
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I've experienced ImOn (when they were McLeod USA), Mediacom, Comcast, and Time Warner and I currently have DirecTV. They are much better than broadcast TV.
I have not and will not cut the cord. | |
| | | | Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
·MegaPath
| Re: At least Verizon Wireless is honest The cell companies have the power and the money to operate COWs. Have you seen a VZW actually set them up? On the ground it maybe takes 3 people to set them up. The backhaul always seems to be in place on the actual towers as nothing never changes if you look at the near by towers. Take a trip to MIS and you can see there. They have well more than 17 COWs for a race. The same as Charlotte Motor Speedway- and they even have equipment IN the speedways- all 3 of them that Charlotte owns. | |
| | | | | IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA Reviews:
·Comcast
·Verizon Broadban..
| Re: At least Verizon Wireless is honest What I am saying though is it would be more cost effective to install permanent cell sites in or near facililities where COWs are frequently used (football stadiums, ballparks, racetracks, etc). The only place I could see the justification of using a COW is a once yearly event such as a state fair. And if they have to pull a permit every time they deploy a COW, then it would even be more justifiable to just put in a permanent cell tower in these facilities.
And some facilities get overlooked for COW deployment such as the Holyoke Mall during the Christmas shopping season. When I had AT&T, you couldn't make or receive calls at the Holyoke Mall during the Christmas shopping season (even though you had 2-3 bars) because the one tower that covered the mall was overloaded. If there is one place where a COW would be useful, it would be larger shopping malls during the Christmas season. And Holyoke Mall at three levels and 200 stores is no exception. Verizon is slightly better for usability under load.
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I've experienced ImOn (when they were McLeod USA), Mediacom, Comcast, and Time Warner and I currently have DirecTV. They are much better than broadcast TV.
I have not and will not cut the cord. | |
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| batterupI Can Not Tell A Lie.Premium
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ | said by IowaCowboy:At least Verizon clearly states there is a cap and you'll be billed for overages.
I don't see any "cap". I have to pay $50 for 5 gig if I use them or not every month; some months I use less than a gig, the most was 9 gigs for $90, that is all you can eat at $10 a gig. This is marketed at business not the Netflix 24/7 crowd. | |
| |  jimkPremium
join:2006-04-15
Raleigh, NC
·Time Warner Cable
·voip.ms
| said by IowaCowboy:At least Verizon clearly states there is a cap and you'll be billed for overages.
They do now, but they didn't always do this. They used to terminate customers for going over 5GB on their supposedly unlimited mobile broadband plans. There was a lawsuit over this (»www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/···07-10-25). They eventually stopped this practice (probably because of the lawsuit) and did offer true unlimited service for a while before eventually implementing caps and overages.
When this policy was in place, VZW had restrictions in the terms of service that limited certain activities that tended to use a lot of data. Straight Talk also has a lot of limitations in their terms of service.
It has been well known in most of the online forums that StraightTalk plans really did have a cap, and they should have never marketed them as unlimited. Their terms of service prohibited just about everything other than web browsing and email the last time I checked. At the end of the day, the phrases "you get what you pay for" and "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" still apply here. | |
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| | Walmarts Response If you need more service then apply for a goverment phone | |
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••••• | Reviews:
·ooma
·Optimum Online
·Verizon FiOS
1 edit | premise The problem is Walmart advertises the so-called "UNLIMITED" everything plans as substantially similar to plans of the major carriers' 4g LTE services (which if you an still get it, cost 200 - 350% higher priced plus added taxes and fees).. that is to say you should expect to see the better speeds at a lower price....
When their marketing hype doesn't match the terms of service, that sends a mixed message where customers can sue based on advertiser (deceptive) claims. Plenty of companies do this (if you've seen ads from the nutritional supplement industry and just about ANY infomercial you happen to see), but seldom do they get caught because their TOS are generally rock solid.
** BTW, I also remember ABC running a part of their news program on how to "save money" by ditching post paid for prepaid and it being substantially the same service parroting how Walmart and Tracfone's units Straight Talk and Net 10 advertise. So, maybe they should be sued too. | |
|  dnoyeBFerrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI
·Comcast
| T-Mobile also made this redefinition of unlimited T-Mobile earlier this or last year also made this redefinition. So now all T-Mobile plans are able to claim "unlimited." You just get throttled at different limits based on how much a month you pay.
Before you would not get throttled but you would pay an overage fee. No more overage fees and your always connected, so it is sortof unlimited.
But then that's what it should be called. 'Sortof Unlimited' plan.
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dnoyeB
"Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard. " Ecclesiastes 9:16
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••• | | | Hire better programmers Seriously, if one guy pulling a few extra gigs off a tower is affecting an entire area then they need some better Qos software on these towers. The software in the towers should gracefully degrade service across all users as demand exceeds capacity. | |
| | Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
·MegaPath
| Re: Hire better programmers The thing is with that- it's not a TracFone issue. It would be Sprint as TracFone and their companies are MVNOs. In some areas they may operate their own equipment going to the Internet, but for the most part; its resold Sprint, TMO, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, depending on the phone and area you live/work/play in. | |
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| | where is the FTC? They love to limit food labels.."organic" etc. We need a lot more policing with cell phone carriers. "Unlimited" means there are no limits. At all. Its not hard to understand. Want to tether? no problem!. Want 100 gb of data at full throttle. No problem. Dont offer that? ok stop using word unlimited. Why dont we just tell people what they are going to get and not get and get rid of all the marketing people? Let service sell itself. All the carriers do this stuff so they all think they have to use the word "unlimited" with an asterisk and 2 pages of fine print you cant read w/o glasses that says what you are getting is in fact very "limited'
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Lakewood Accountability Action Group | »www.LAAG.us | Demanding action and accountability from local government
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|  linicxCaveat EmptorPremium
join:2002-12-03
United State
·CenturyLink
| Karl, that class-action suit won't hold water. Lets get the facts fixed. 
TracFone Wireless is a trademark of, and wholly owned by, MVNO operator América Móvil S.A.B. de C.V. ("AMX"), with over 260,000,000 wireless subscribers in Latin America, over 64,000,000 fixed revenue units in the Americas, and over 22,000,000 wireless subscribers in the United States.
Straight Talk and Net 10 are trademarks of TracFone Wireless, a subsidiary of AMX. The Straight Talk handset and service contract is offered for sale by TracFone Wireless on its website, by phone, and also in 3000 Walmart stores.
AMX service contracts are NOT THE SAME as AT&T, or Apple, or any other U.S wireless service provider for several reasons.
[1] Not every contract is available for every TracFone handset sold in the U.S..
[2] The no-contract/pay-go handset is limited to the air time seller that is determined by the buyers need and handset purchased.
[3] American English is a second language (ESL); Spanish is the first.
[4] Some handsets are sold with plans that double and triple purchased air time minutes. In my case I buy 60 minutes air time and get 180. But, unlike the annual contract that is prepaid by card or bank, it is time consuming to buy.
[5] No-contract air time minutes are carried over month-to-month.
[6] The no-contract handset air time minutes are deducted at one full minute to text or talk. Long text messages, songs, and photos are configured in multiple minutes to send or receive. The amount of air-time deducted is calculated on size of upload and/or download.
[7] Some phones are preloaded with MS Windows and Bing.
Patience is a virtue. I have never had rude service, or bad instructions from the TracFone call center.
Caveat Emptor. It is a good idea to understand what you are buying before you hate it. Don't blame Walmart. They don't own it; they sell a service.
I've never had a Straight Talk phone. My cousins like their phones. They play a birds game, text, share photos, and talk. They don't live on it, watch TV, movies or ball games. It is like any other cell phone. In some areas of the U.S. there is no signal because there is no tower. The AT&T phone does not work off the Sprint tower. Learn the diff between CDMA, GSA, 3G, WiFi, and Bluetooth. What you buy will make a difference in phone quality and signal strength in your primary area. By and large I have had good service from a TracFone for a very long time. | |
| | | leave it to walmart to continue to mislead This is typical walmart activity. They continually mislead the poor, uneducated and unknowing slobs that they service. | |
| | linicxCaveat EmptorPremium
join:2002-12-03
United State | Re: leave it to walmart to continue to mislead They do not deliberately mislead anyone who reads the fine print. Every contract has it.
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Mac: No windows, No Gates, Apple inside | |
|
 Simba7I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT | Why are they bitching, again? For $45/mo, I'm getting unlimited voice and texts.. and I've been using at least 2GB of data a month without issues. If I get throttled, oh well. I still get my alerts, calendar updates, emails, etc.
I don't see any of the big carriers doing this. They'll give you 1GB a month, then cut you off unless you fork over for an "upgrade card". If you don't like it, go contract and be prepared to get screwed over even more.
I've been on ST with my Skyrocket (and my old Captivate) for 2 years now. It's great, and I have *NEVER* had issues with them. I don't see why people bitch for paying $45/mo for rather decent service.
Plus, it's not in ST's control.. it's in the networks they utilize. They don't operate their own towers since they're an MVNO.
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Bresnan 30M/5M | CenturyLink 5M/896K
MyWS[PnmIIX3@3.2G,8G RAM,500G+1.5T+2T HDDs,Win7]
MyLaptop[Asus G53SX,32GB RAM,2x750GB HDD,Win7]
WifeWS[A64@2G,2G RAM,120G HDD,Win7]
Router[PE1750,4G RAM,3x36G HDD,2xIntel Pro/1000+GT Quad Port,Gentoo] | |
| | | | Re: Why are they bitching, again? Maybe because you have never experienced perma-throttle.
The problems seem very regional as you would expect with a reseller. | |
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