estnet

So I've been very happy with my samsung vibrant - until today. TM had "unlimited" data with notice that that if u exceed 5g your connection will be slower. Fine - until today - exceeded 5g and speed slowed to 1% of previous speeds.
After 8 hours on the phone upshot is that TM changed their throttle in Jan to "what it was supposed to be" "yes it is supposed to be slower than an old dial up"..........
Had this been the case when I bought it I would have returned in the first 30 days as this is unusable. But, no it worked fine for a few months so now I have an early termination fee and I have to find a new co. (wish I hadn't canceled my land line)
Best line from their "loyalty" section when I said just making it unusable without option to pay for more data was unreasonable "gee....that's a good idea I'll have to pass it on"

I have filed a complaint with FTC and urge anyone else affected to do so if they please.

kennycrudup

Eh? For what?

They're doing exactly what they said they were going to do, and according to something I'd read on Engadget the reason it hadn't slowed so dramatically earlier is they weren't enforcing it (fully) before.

"Bait and Switch"? Hardly. I have that same plan, BTW, and would rather have slower speeds instead of huge overage charges (but I'd be nice for that cap to be raised- 5GBs is BS).

gfunkdave

A friend who used to be a big cheese at Cricket told me that something like 3% of the users were responsible for something like 30-40% of the network traffic. Those aren't the actual numbers he used, but the idea is the same. I don't remember the actual numbers, but I remember being surprised.

5GB should be plenty if you're not watching TV or streaming Netflix. It seems silly to me that carriers sell smartphones with "Hey, you can watch TV on this!" but then impose data caps that make actually doing that impossible more than just a little bit.

estnet

Bait and switch b/c if they had done this during the first 30 days I would have seen what I was buying, but now putting it at a level that is so slow as to be unusable when I can't cancel without a huge penalty. Also no choice to pay more and have usable service!

I don't download movies or tv - largest use was probably ONE 30 min hulu episode during the entire 2 weeks of the month I've actually been home to use it. So in 2 weeks of making hotel reservations, following the news (and clicking as soon as I can to stop those annoying video clips that I don't ask for), some skype, lots of ft......I've exceeded 5g!

This is a bad joke

Non-NonRev

Apologies but I'm unclear on one point - did they impose the data cap at some date after you became a customer. or was the data cap in the terms and conditions from day one of your contract?

estnet

The cap was always there - so I made sure I tested how much it was slowed down - probably slowed 20-40 % before, now(apparently since Jan) it is slowed 99%!
I could live with a slow down but not an effective "shut down" (eg skype doesn't work, I can read 2 pages of paper text while an email - text only- loads, etc). They say it is nationwide but I've read a number of posts complaining that they just did this in the SF bay area and lots of people have the same complaint of it being unusable.

bakedpatato

When I hit 5gb on my T-Mobile data plan I would get a nice text from them telling me I'm throttled; the throttled speeds would be around 28-100kbits in comparison to the 1mbit+ I got with no throttle

estnet

Yes every month before now I would get a nice message saying I was throttled - but it was usable as I said. Now it's different - the speed is cut by 99% (from 3.22 or so MB/s to .03 MB/s)! AND there is no way to have a warning sent when I hit 4 gb or any number b/c I have an "unlimited" plan. Yes, I could monitor my usage by logging in (and using up more data) often, but................


This is new this month (just happened to me yesterday), at the speed they are allowing an mp3 download of 5mg will take 21 minutes! A video clip (which I don't do) of 35 mgb will take 150 minutes - and a movie (which thankfully I have no plans for) a whopping 3255 minutes!

Looking at the news or checking my orders on the mint page often doesn't even load - it times out.

MAN Pax

I really struggle to see how you can burn 5Gb of data in a month on a smartphone if you're not watching Video or downloading stacks of MP3, unless it's tethered to a computer.

5Gb should be enough for most people and is a reasonable cap IMHO, otherwise we will all be funding a huge increase in bandwidth for the benefit of a very small minority of high users.

dtsm

We should all be thankful TMO is putting the pigs in the pen.....

Dubai Stu

The issue isn't whether I think 5 gigs is reasonable but whether TMobile materially changed the meaning of the word throttling after he signed the contract. TMobile can (of course) have an engineer study the logs on his account and argue that illegal tethering was going on and the poster was in violation of the contract.

TMobile's terms and conditions have an arbitration agreement with the American Arbitration Association (Consumer Arbitration). Their website is adr.org.

You need to start your dispute (after finishing with customer support) with a letter to TMobile's legal counsel outlining your dispute and requesting resolution. The address is in the contract. After you are done, you can file a petition for arbitration with the American Arbitration Association. Read the contract three or our times.

If a contract term is not defined at the time of signing, an arbitrator can look at practice to define the term and you can argue that excessive throttling is a violation of the term. Next, you need to think what your remedy is. It is much harder to get specific performance than recession. It is much easier to get specific performance of something where TMobile doesn't have to create a specific plan for you. There is a balancing here. Your detrimental reliance damages go up if TMobile made you lose opportunity.

For example, I have an ATT unlimited international data plan which I am grandfathered in on. If ATT tries to argue that I am not damages based on the cancelling because they are no longer billing me the extra $35 a month for it, I would argue that had they spoken up earlier, I would have gotten Verizon's competing plan, specific performance is the only way to make me whole, and that ATT is still running precisely the same plan for others. They won't have to write a special plan just for me.

Aribtration is a pain, but you can win. Take your time, make your arguments. If you have a friend who is a lawyer, bribe him/her to proof your stuff.

cordelli

I don't know. If you knew the cap was there and you knew they would slow you down, to me it's like saying the State police are doing bait and switch because all of a sudden they started enforcing a speed limit of 55 in an area you have always driven 90 in.

They are providing the service you agreed to. Over 5 gb, you get much slower. If the agreement didn't say how much slower, and you didn't ask, well that pretty much leaves it up to them.

Not really sure how it is bait and switch.

dtsm

No arguments about who provides best coverage: most folks would say Vz hands down.

No arguments about how provides best customer service: TMO wins JD Power Award for second year running: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/J...64?nocomment=1

And no surprise that with Vz's launch of iPhone, they're also reining in the pigs:http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=12774

redburgundy

^^

gfunkdave

It really just depends where you use your phone. Verizon is great in many places but has plenty of gaps. What Verizon IS the best at is marketing themselves as the carrier with the best network.

When I was in grad school just north of Chicago and had Verizon, I couldn't make calls in the house. I had to walk into the driveway, practically into the street. AT&T worked great, even in the basement, and T-mobile worked only on the second floor. Then T-mobile built a base station a block away and I could make calls anywhere in the area. I paid the ETF from Verizon and switched to T-mobile.

In my current apt on the 21st floor in downtown Chicago, T-mobile works everywhere but my BF's Verizon reception is spotty at best. AT&T is unusable.

YMMV is the moral of the story.