Up To 20 Million Overcharged by AT&T

Daily Mail

AT&T are ’systematically overcharging’ up to 20 million Americans who use their iPhone or iPad to access data on the go, an investigation has uncovered.

The lawsuit alleges the phone giant routinely overcharges customers between 7 and 14 percent, and in some cases up to 300 percent.

In tests, engineers said they found the company charged for downloading data and surfing the web even when the iPhones remained untouched.

Speaking to MSNBC, lawyer Barry Davis who worked on the suit, said: ‘It’s like a rigged gas pump. Where when you go to the gas station and ask for a gallon of gas but only get 9/10’s.’

When asked by a reporter whether his team found overcharging for every single transaction, he replied: ‘yes, every single one.’

The reporter then asked: ‘Did you ever find a discrepancy where the customer was undercharged?’ Mr Davis replied: ‘Never. Always an overcharge, never an undercharge.’

Over 20 million Americans have iPhones or iPads with AT&T, who until a few months ago were the sole network allowed to sell the phones.

In order to test the allegations, the team bought several new iPhones, disabled all software that would automatically access the internet or download data and left them on, but untouched, for 10 days.

When they received the bill, they found AT&T had charged them for 35 different transactions.

Independent engineers also measured the amount of data downloaded in a series of tests, and then compared the results to the bill sent by AT&T.

They found that in every case AT&T overcharged by between 7-14 per cent, and in some cases by as much as 300 per cent.

Speaking to MSNBC, AT&T customer Mike Stewart said: ‘Its just like someone stealing those minutes away from you.
‘They’re just robbing the time from your plan.’

At&T responded by saying the allegations were: ‘Without merit’ and ‘reflect a misunderstanding of the way data is measured.’

The company said some apps have software that runs in the background or is automatically updated which may use data that consumer isn’t aware of.

2 Comments

  • we need a normal phone company

    omg that is so messed up .. thank god i dont have at&t… but tmobile also overcharges.. last month i got a bill for 900$ .. unless someone robbed my phone and call australia a million times idk how that happened

  • to 1

    get metropcs a i know that you cant call all the countries they say you can call with it and the service aint that good but in the end $40 means $40 (or $50 if you have a blackberry from them) verizon pulls the same shtik as att so wathc out.