AT&T Learning From Airlines

Ever fly on a plane and realize that the guy sitting next to you paid a lot less for the exact same seat? Ever wonder if your neighbor is getting the exact same service from AT&T and paying a lot less?

In February 2007 I moved onto an AT&T plan that covered my unlimited local, regional and long distance calling, their "All Distance" plan. It costs $51.00 per month.

AT&T has recently been sending me lots of mail encouraging me to bundle my Internet, cell phone, TV service with them. I've got no interest in that at this time but I did want to see how competitive they were with my home phone plan. I was surprised that Verizon's almost equivalent plan (fewer features that I never use) is cheaper. I was shocked that AT&T has the same plan as mine available for $40 online. 20%+ cheaper? Including taxes, that difference will work out to roughly $150/year I'm paying more than the next guy.

That's right, my neighbor could have been getting the same plan as me for less. Did AT&T reduce my rates when their new pricing hit? No. In all this mail they send me, did they let me know I could save just by asking for the same plan and new price? No. Did AT&T try and milk more money out of me. Yes.

On top of that, when I called AT&T, I was told I would have to re-order the exact same service online in order to get the lower price. Well that's a waste of time. And what happened when I tried to order it online? You guessed it. I have to call AT&T again.

For not letting a customer know that they could save money on the exact same services, for not automatically giving their customers the new price points, and for sending a customer from their phone center to their website only to be told to go back to their phone center, AT&T is a Company Acting Badly.