Sick of ATT service? Operation Chokehold on Friday :)

[Ika]

ATT's got the 2nd largest network (by subscribers) in the US, the poor service affects everyone, from grandmas with Nokia single purpose phones to iPhones.

ATT has consistently displayed contempt for their subscribers by refusing to deal with their well known and documented network issues, preferring to spend millions on ads and lawsuits to pretend they have a decent network.

The whole industry revolves around contracts and keeping captive subscribers.

And yet you continue to pay them money, month after month. *boggle*

Because, guess what - the #1 alternative, Verizon, does the same FUCKING THING. There's nothing you can do to get out of the price-gouging. To use a smartphone on Verizon's network, you have to pay a minimum of $70/month, plus $100+ for the phone after rebates. And that's the most basic plan - heaven forbid you want more than 450 minutes, a text plan, or multiple lines for your kids. You can't even get a smartphone without getting a mandatory $30/m data plan. Verizon also charges 20 cents per text message that isn't planned. 20 fucking cents, for a few lines of text? And they recently upped their early termination fee to $350, but it decreases for every month you pay - too bad you still have to pay $110 for terminating after 23 months of your 24-month contract.

I swear, the entire industry in this country fucking sucks. /rant

 

[QueBert]

lol who the hell hacked Rubycon's account?

any ways I was sick of ATT's service so I... left them. And I left them for T-Mobile of all companies. That goes to show you how horrible I found ATT's service/prices to be.

 

[GeekDrew]

I'm with AT&T because *in my area* it has by far the best service, and best phones. I can't say that it's great, but it's the best there is.

 

[Pliablemoose]

And yet you continue to pay them money, month after month. *boggle*

Um, I'm out of contract with a very good grandfathered TMobile plan.

I had ATT for about a year and that was more than enough of paying someone to treat me like crap.

 

[Parasitic]

Then get a different phone. This isn't rocket surgery, no one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to use the iPhone. I know many of the details of the situation because I listen to Californians moan about this every day on Buzz Out Loud podcast (to the point where I've stopped listening, this takes so much time up). First of all anyone who signs a 2 year contract to use a phone is a Category 5 Moron, secondly you don't have to use the Jesus Phone.

AT&T has 82 million subscribers. New Zealand has 4 million people. The economies of scale are way different, so don't bitch about American cell service when you have no idea how it really works.

 

[Pliablemoose]

AT&T has 82 million subscribers. New Zealand has 4 million people. The economies of scale are way different, so don't bitch about American cell service when you have no idea how it really works.

But he reads the internets, he knows how it works

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

AT&T has 82 million subscribers. New Zealand has 4 million people. The economies of scale are way different, so don't bitch about American cell service when you have no idea how it really works.

LOL I'm not bitching about your service, it doesn't affect me at all. I'm saying it's amazing that people will continue stuffing money into the pockets of a company and whine about the service they receive in return.

 

[HumblePie]

LOL, know what will scare them more? Everyone quitting.... even if they pay the EFT. Or how about if you can't do that then an absence would be more noticeable than an overload.

Seriously, if every AT&T customer didn't use their service for a day and they saw that it would freak them out more Good luck with that though.

 

[lupi]

Not to mention unless you outright buy your phone (and the pricing levels are made such to strongly discourage such) it's difficult not to get into a 2 year plan.

 

[her209]

iphones are for faggits! EVeryone knows this!

That definitely doesn't sound like Rubycon.

 

[Parasitic]

Seriously, if every AT&T customer didn't use their service for a day and they saw that it would freak them out more Good luck with that though.

Doesn't quite work since everyone gets billed monthly anyways. Might even lessen the work for AT&T.

 

[Parasitic]

LOL I'm not bitching about your service, it doesn't affect me at all. I'm saying it's amazing that people will continue stuffing money into the pockets of a company and whine about the service they receive in return.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that cell subscribers in New Zealand will complain about their service too, but since the entire subscriber base of all four NZ telecoms combined is 20 times smaller than that of ONE company they're effectively silenced.

Just because you don't hear your friendly neighbors complaining about cell service it doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

[cronos]

Not to mention unless you outright buy your phone (and the pricing levels are made such to strongly discourage such) it's difficult not to get into a 2 year plan.

It is definitely tough for people here in the US who are used to get subsidized phones. I'll just blame the carriers for this.

 

[Parasitic]

It is definitely tough for people here in the US who are used to get subsidized phones. I'll just blame the carriers for this.

The US is not the only country that plays this game though. Consumers all over the world fall for this.

 

[darkswordsman17]

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that cell subscribers in New Zealand will complain about their service too, but since the entire subscriber base of all four NZ telecoms combined is 20 times smaller than that of ONE company they're effectively silenced.

Just because you don't hear your friendly neighbors complaining about cell service it doesn't mean they don't exist.

Are you guys really attacking him because he doesn't have personal experience with ATT/US cellular network? It doesn't take a genius to tell you that speaking with your money > all other retarded bullshit, which is all he is saying. The situation you're complaining about isn't really different than back when you signed up in the first place, so maybe you should have done more research before signing up? You dolts were so blinded by the new phones you apparently forgot that the cellular business is designed to fuck you over and had been doing so before that, and will continue to do so until you stop letting them. Also, learn about who to complain to. Tell your attorney general and business regulatory organizations, not whine about it on the internet and try to do stupid "protests" and online petitions. Tell your government representatives that you fucking hate the current situation and tell them why. Tell others to do the same. At the minimum it will get as much results as the methods you're proposing.

 

[darkamulets]

Bright side this should only impact data and not sms/voice calls. End of the day you have x amount of resources dedicated to data traffic vs sms & voice. Hope everyone enjoys the lack of service when they try to check email during the "protest".

 

[Parasitic]

Are you guys really attacking him because he doesn't have personal experience with ATT/US cellular network?

I am not attacking him because he doesn't have personal experience with AT&T. He and his brother, both New Zealanders, post anti-American bashing comments in every American thread when clearly the only ideas they have about America come from the media, which do not present the real picture accurately.

Edit: also if you read through the thread you'll realize that I have not posted anything for or against this Operation. I agree with you that people should vote with their money and just eat the ETF if they aren't satisified with their service. I for one did that and left AT&T awhile back.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

That definitely doesn't sound like Rubycon.

Neither does this.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=29059874&postcount=12

 

[EMPshockwave82]

No, everyone participating has the lawful right to use ATT's 3G service.

They do not, however, have the right to use this service with malicious intentions. Normal use would be perfectly OK. This is conspiring to use their service with malicious intentions to cause undue hardship to the provider.

Edit: Definition of DDOS attack:
A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or people to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely.

 

[Cattlegod]

LOL me too....

haha i bet someone walked up to the browser while ruby was still logged in

 

[cronos]

The US is not the only country that plays this game though. Consumers all over the world fall for this.

Yeah I think I've heard that they have started doing that everywhere else too. They learned from the best :twisted:.

All I know was that from 1995 when I had my first GSM phone until 1999 when I moved here to the US I have never heard of such thing (GSM carrier selling handsets). I was totally confused when I got here that GSM isn't available (i.e. I couldn't use my phone here), and that the common practice was to buy your phone from your carrier. Subsidized, but in turn you had to stay with them for 2 years. I thought it was such a big scam I didn't get a cell phone until I really needed to in 2004.

 

[ViviTheMage]

This will do nothing...

 

[frostedflakes]

iphones are for faggits! EVeryone knows this!

... theflyingpig, is that you?

 

[Freejack2]

I'll stick with my Sprint Mogul. It may not have all the fancy features of an Iphone but it does everything I need it to do. Of course Sprint is yet another one people love to hate.

 

[evident]

I must hand it to att. They know that crapples worshippers would pay anything to use the holy phone. Too bad you jerks screwed the rest of us now we cant even get a smart phone without paying extreme fees