AT&T's i495 Bait and Switch
Fred S.
group of angry customers will get together and file a class action, or at
least report the matter to their state Attorney General's offices. A
hypertext listing of the Attorney General websites for each state, with
contact information, follows at the end of this e-mail.
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AT&T PULLS A BAIT 'N' SWITCH
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posted 7:58am EST Tue Nov 27 2001
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2001nov/gee20011127009025.htm
NEWS
AT&T announced yesterday it will close its 1.5-year-old, low-cost i495
Internet access plan and automatically switching customers to its more
expensive WorldNet packages. Like most of the advertising-supported or
free ISP services, i495 could no longer sustain itself as the online
advertising market dries up.
For US$4.95 per month, i495 customers got 150 hours of 'Net access ...
and an ad banner. AT&T spokeswoman Janet Wyles said that "the
advertising market has softened significantly" and that supplemental
revenue from i495's ad banner had become too unreliable to sustain
operations. To stop the money loss, AT&T will start switching i495
customers to a WorldNet on January 4 of next year. That particular
WorldNet plan offers 50 hours of 'Net access for $10.95 per month ...
without an ad banner.
To entice i495 customers to sign up for more expensive WorldNet plans,
AT&T will give $25 Amazon.com gift certificates to anyone who switches
to the 150 hours/$16.95 per month WorldNet plan.
For more information, please see CNET. References to i495 have been
removed from AT&T's WorldNet pages, but you can see one of the old
i495 marketing angles aimed at senior citizens.
SAM'S OPINION
This is certainly not a unique occurrence in the world of free or
low-cost ISPs, but I have to say it's a bit sad to see corporate giant
AT&T trying to glom onto the same "not enough revenue" excuse that all
the little companies used. I'm not saying that AT&T should've kept up
its $4.95 plan at a loss out of the goodness of its heart, but when
coupled with its decision to automatically switch i495 customers to a
more expensive plan with less access, this whole thing smacks of
pretty blatant corporate greed, and is quite disappointing.
I haven't been a big fan of AT&T's Internet services, having lived in
sections of Boston for 5 years now without being able to get any sort
of broadband service from the giant telecom (AT&T runs the cable
system where I currently live). The only free ISP I ever used was
NetZero (and only as a backup to my real ISP, GIS), which recently
merged with Juno (whose free e-mail service I've been using for years
to deflect spam) to form United Online (or something).
The free/low-cost ad-supported ISP market has kicked its last and died
as a major revenue source and we've all heard plenty about it. Jeers
to AT&T for piggy-backing on the plight of much smaller companies and
still trying to suck blood from those it duped. Gee, a $25 Amazon.com
gift certificate? Yeesh.
[additional user comments on site]
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Contact information for the Attorneys General in every state for those i495
consumers who wish to pursue this matter further:
http://www.cocs.com/jhoagland/stateag.html
Many of the AG sites offer the convenience of on-line complaint forms.
DoublEE
"Fred S." <Fred...@att.net> wrote in message
news:tEdP7.144334$WW.91...@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> Thought this was interesting, and also happen to agree with it. Maybe a
> group of angry customers will get together and file a class action, or at
> least report the matter to their state Attorney General's offices.
Bait-and-Switch? Class action suit?
Am I missing something here? Here's a simple solution; if you don't want to
be switched just CANCEL your current account. I guess the rest of you morons
that lack the ability to cancel an account should file a class action suit
against your parents for raising such a dumb-f*ck.