Twitter On Fire With Anti-AT&T Complaints
1:32 pm, June 9th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Twitpic by John Atilano
One day after Apple’s triumphant WWDC, angry iPhone users are burning up Twitter with invective aimed at AT&T.
Twitter users are complaining in their thousands about the ways AT&T has dropped the ball: no iPhone 3G S subsidy for current iPhone customers; and no support for important new features like MMS and tethering when the new iPhone launches on June 19.
The #attfail hashtag is attracting many of the complaints about missing features and upgrades, as is the #iphone3gs hashtag, and AT&T’s official corporate account. Hundreds of complaints are being sent directly to the account, and there appears to be no messages at all defending the company.
Meanwile, a pair of Twitter petitions, or “twititions,” are hoping to pressure AT&T and 02, the UK iPhone carrier, to offer “reasonable upgrade prices” for current iPhone 3G customers.
The O2 twitition has attracted about 2,500 signatures by Tuesday afternoon (PST), and the AT&T twitition about 1,500. The AT&T twitition was started later in the day, but both are spreading fast through retweets.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, iPhone, iPhone 3G | Comment on this article
Grow up! Did you not understand that a 2 year contract last 2 years? I can’t believe how childish so many iPhone 3G owners are being. You are embarrassing the rest of us who have no problem honoring our contract, or coughing up the money if we want to move sooner. You should take a step back and try to realize how bad you are making every Apple supporter look.
Do you think you have some inalienable right to endless discounts for iPhones? I would rather pay Apple’s full list price than act like a spoiled brat. Please stop cursing like a child throwing a fit on the floor.
Rob, on June 9th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
it’s not just the cell & iphones it’s att’s service as a whole the total nonchalant attitude the csr’s have the high prices of all their services. the new att should go back and rethink ,revamp and retrain
christina ramirez, on June 9th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
As much as it sucks, I have to agree with those who point out that AT&T subsidized half the cost of the phone through the two year contract with the iPhone 3G. That was the reason for the prices being lower on intro than they were for the original iPhone.
I wouldn’t like it either, but I think there are a lot more valid complaints about AT&T to be found.
Scott, on June 9th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
People in the US are waaay out of touch with reality and too submerged in their delusions of entitlement.
They want AT&T to upgrade your iP3G for a 3GS subsidised? When you haven’t finished paying your 3G? Why would they lose money like that? Just because people think they deserve it? pffft! Ridiculous.
Vox, on June 9th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
What a bunch of sniveling, self-entitled pussies. What about a two-year contract do they not understand? You have to wait at least 18 months with ALL subsidized cell phones, not just the iPhone. Get a grip!
Eric, on June 9th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Subsidized pricing is just the name of the game in these partnerships. I’m just curious, say a current AT&T customer and owner of an older iPhone reaches the end of their contract, are they then eligible for the lower prices for the new iPhone?
http://www.newsy.com/videos/at_t_crashes_iphone_party
Jess, on June 9th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
‘Twititions’ is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve read all day. Do we really have to invent a bunch of new words just because they are facilitated by Twitter? I’m tweetraged by this twucking twractice.
matt, on June 9th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
The MMS and tethering thing, I can kind of understand. As far behind as the US is compared to most of the developed world in terms of mobile technology, these are features that have already caught on and should be easy to implement.
But complaining about a lack of upgrade pricing when you’re still in your contract? This is bush league stuff. The only thing giving this complaint any credence at all right now is the fact that so many people are engaged in doing it, but once the novelty of “twitter is on fire” wears off, anyone with a stitch of common sense will be calling you out on how out of touch and pathetic a this is.
Darcy Fitzpatrick, on June 9th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I still don’t own an iPhone, and won’t, until AT&T goes away. Disappears. Vanishes. I love the service provider I have now (Credo) and will never give my hard-earned money to the criminals at AT&T.
BYoung, on June 9th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
You folks who support AT&T’s pricing policy are wrong.
Having a low but unavailable price rubbed in the face of the very people who’ve made the iPhone a hit in the first place is infuriating.
Jay in Los Angeles, on June 9th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Rob, you missed the whole point. FYI: AT&T offered upgrades to 3G iPhone after only 1st year of contract. Cant you say “Ass” on this blog?
Sad to say but Apple made a bad deal with AT&T.
Johnny Bravo, on June 9th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Guys,
I agree about respecting the two-year contract because the phone is subsidized but, let’s think this straight:
Couldn’t all the carriers just give you the option to pay what’s left at once and then buy a new model? No. Couldn’t they give you the option to use the same 3G contract amongst different devices providing you SIM card duplicates, but only once at a time? No. Couldn’t they just let you use tethering in your phone without forcing you to pay for another 3G contract? No. Why?
The thing is they don’t have a clue about what flexibility and options mean, including AT&T and a lot of other carriers in other countries. They’re just used to squeeze the market, and when customers coming from the consumer electronics market and used to another way of doing things hit this, there’s always problems.
Why isn’t possible to sell a phone subsidized AND free? Why consumer protection agencies and governments allow such twarted agreements between carriers and hardware vendors? That’s the real problem.
Both Apple and AT&T are guilty here, because Apple is also sucking part of the revenue AT&T is doing with 3G connectivity. AT&T wins, Apple wins, and the customer loses. The difference here is Apple plays smarter in terms of public image.
The iPhone will never repeat the iPod success as a hardware device until the phone-carrier bond is broken. But again, Apple wasn’t getting revenue for your connectivity time back then, right?
Javier Canadillas, on June 10th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Well, if the ATT “subsidy” is only US$200, then what’s the point? ATT makes that back in two months because the average bill is around US$100/month. Once that’s done, ATT should remove the SIM lock because it made back its subsidy and people are on contract anyway…
If they insist on selling it at full price, then sell it unlocked. If they sell it with “subsidy”, then people on contract that have fulfilled the “subsidy” cost ($200) of being a subscriber should be able to upgrade with the advertised price.
makanramen, on June 10th, 2009 at 1:57 am
Easy: Extend my contract another 2 years on top of my current plan and let me get the damn phone now for the lower price. It would equal the same thing as if I had waited 6 more months and bought the new phone then. All they are doing is pissing people off and making them wait because no one in their right mind will pay an extra $218. This will only result in vastly fewer sales in the first year.
Tony Buser, on June 10th, 2009 at 7:57 am
I’m glad to see there are sane people out there who understand how the cellular business works. A&T can be criticized for many things (unreliable service, less then stellar customer service, etc) but this complaint just looks like a bunch of petulant children stomping their feet and pouting to get what they want (except they are doing it on Twitter instead of mommy or daddy). Some people truly do have an absurd sense of entitlement and very little shame.
This same thing would have happened to them if they were on Verizon and new Blackberry came out and they just got last years model with a two year contract as well. Its just the way the subsidization system works. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been with a company for 10 years, they still have to cover the cost of yo9ur phones. If you don’t like the system then stop buying subsidized phones! Its like people think that these phones just magically pay for themselves.
miimalist, on June 10th, 2009 at 10:21 am
It is not petulant for an early adopter / enthusiast to want the same treatment as customers who are new.
It is not petulant, entitled, consumerist, or many of the other words thrown around condescendingly by so many who’ve commented here and in the previous, related post.
Enthusiasts deserve to be rewarded, not penalized. That’s just good business.
Blogs really do bring out the worst in people, don’t they? If you’re an asshole when you’re being anonymous, guess what? You’re actually an asshole all day!
Jay in Los Angeles, on June 10th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Whining and complaining with feigned outrage all over Twitter that you might actually be expected to honor a service contract you willingly signed in exchange for below cost hardware is unreasonable, immature and yes, very much like the tantrum of a petulant child. If you really want the iPhone you know what you have to do to get it…. pay a higher price to offset the loss AT&T will have to take on your original phone or buy an unsubsidized phone each year. Its very simple math.
Whether you are an “early adopter” or an “enthusiast” is irrelevant. Elite tech status does nothing to pay back the money that a carrier is owed for a smartphone for which they paid full price and sold at a loss. “Good business” does not mean taking a loss every year a new phone comes out and all the early adopter feels they are entitled to the newest hardware at the lowest possible price.
minimalist, on June 10th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Minimal — you’re buying into this different prices for different people structure as though it were acceptable. Where we disagree is exactly on this point. It is not acceptable to me or many others.
We do agree about one thing — ‘twitting’ about it is kind of silly. But then again, Twitter is heralding the end of intelligence as we know it, so that’s probably a bigger problem than how much one pays for an iPhone.
Jay in Los Angeles, on June 11th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Its acceptable because its the way subsidized hardware works in the US (and has worked for over 20 years). There is nothing new happening here. It’s an industry standard. If you had bought the hardware unsubsidized you would not be indebted to AT&T and you would never have had to sign a contract at all and none of this would be an issue.
The only thing that is new is the fact that people have grown accustomed to raising a stink, no matter how unreasonable, on Twitter and getting companies to give them what they want just to shut them up. Personally, I hope AT&T stands their ground.
If these people were making a valid, reasonable complaint against AT&T (for example the crappy call quality, the dropped data and cellular connections, etc) I’d be right behind them. But they are just throwing a tantrum because they don;t think they should have to honor their contacts that pay for the cheap phones they were given.
minimalist, on June 11th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
to Javier.
actually by not giving you the sub price this time around, they are basically making you pay off what you had not paid off from your last upgrade.
Lucas, on June 16th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
[...] the backlash that AT&T was facing from current subscribers, led largely by the online community, the company knew it needed to [...]
AT&T Response to iPhone Critics Misses a Golden Opportunity, on June 17th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
AT&T has the worst customer service. It took an hour and half just to add an international data plan. I can’t wait for my contract to end since they won’t let me out of it even though we get no cell service at our house in the middle of southern california.
James, on July 1st, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I have an iphone as well, but i’m going to get a little bit off subject & talk about how bad their home phone service is!! i’m already an active customer who wants additional home phone service from you and you tell me it should be on by 8pm central time. what a lie!! i told you i needed the home phone for my new job!!! but i guess u don’t care!! Next time you send someone out tell him after working on the phone lines he should at least get his f@t@zz out the truck to see if it is working in the home!!
Diva, on August 4th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
This is just the beginning of AT&T’s shenannigans.
All internet service customers have now got to go through YAHOO to check their email…yahoo… GARBAGE!
-419-MIKE, on September 1st, 2009 at 8:12 pm
AT&T SUCKS. They are a scab on the face of american business and should be investigated by the FCC and the Calf. Da
Rich, on September 21st, 2009 at 9:08 pm
well people, if u want to do something about it, stop buying all this useless technology junk; seems like once they come up with something new, there all these idiots buying and buying;
just stop…..
then they will come down on prices and be willing to make deals;
otherwise, wake up at 6am , go to work and do not complain when u spend your weekly check on some piece of music player or cell phone or whatever ,that does not really make u happy, just kind of keeping u with the crowd ……..
homeless have cell phones now, god, welfare supports apple now, did anyone know?? hahhahahahha
happy, on September 23rd, 2009 at 6:37 pm
AT&T suck their controling the game right now but due to
their total lack of cooperation regarding three different
problems I have told them and Apple I will be leaving
when my contract is up, their reply was Fine.
When they fall and they are going to self destruct with
their apathetic non existent customer relations/ satisfaction
policy I’m going to celebrate. Hope you nothing but failure AT&T
Don garretson, on October 11th, 2009 at 12:51 am
I’m ok with the premium pricing and have come to terms with the 2-year contract, but AT&T service is atrocious. It is basically down all day every weekday for me — absolutely unacceptable in one of the biggest metro areas in the U.S. after charging me an extra $40/month more than what I was paying before for the same service. Apple’s authoritarian policies in regards to Google Voice, Skype, and other apps don’t help.
I’m stuck in this tarpit for two years, but I’m advising everyone to stay away.
Brufest, on October 27th, 2009 at 12:07 am